Calls for use of AI to streamline tasks to be ‘accelerated’ by SIC

SHETLAND Islands Council (SIC) has been urged to “accelerate” its roll-out of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency throughout departments.

A meeting this week heard that a project investigating how digital systems and AI integration can be used to improve how council services work is expected to be completed in October 2027.

No description was given for how AI would be used, though it would likely to be to streamline administration tasks.

Corporate services director Christine Ferguson said one person within the ICT department was “very much specialising in AI”, and is exploring how it could support services.

She added that a policy strategy on how AI was used within the SIC was also set to come before councillors for approval in the next cycle of council meetings.

Shetland Central councillor Davie Sandison said a number of other Scottish councils had “already implemented quite a lot of AI into their systems”.

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He questioned whether the SIC was “collaborating fully” with other local authorities to see how they were using AI, and if there were “exemplars” Shetland could follow.

Sandison added that he wanted the council to “focus in on how to move it forward”.

Lerwick South representative Dennis Leask was of a similar persuasion, saying it was the “speed” of the rollout which he wanted to see improve.

Leask said a meeting 18 months ago had “unanimously agreed” there should be “champions” in each office for the implementation of digital and AI services.

However he added he was “not aware of that happening” yet.

Leask said there was a sense that things needed to “happen a little bit quicker” and that it “needs to be accelerated a wee bit”.

Ferguson said the key risk was that staff were already under a lot of pressure, and it was about “finding the time” to focus on digital/AI roll-outs.

Leask also suggested it would be helpful for staff to have training courses to learn how things worked in practice, with Ferguson again stating that would take time out of people’s working days.

“It’s about getting space from the day job to look at something new,” she said.