Scotland is the UK\u2019s leading nation for local government adoption of artificial intelligence, a study into how councils are using the technology has found.<\/p>\n
An 18-month study involving Heriot-Watt University found almost a third of Scottish councils are piloting or using AI, while more than a fifth are using it for day-to-day work.<\/p>\n
A report on AI readiness found that Scottish councils are pulling ahead on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n
It said councils in England showed innovation in metropolitan areas but there is fragmentation across county and district tiers. Wales and Northern Ireland were said to be in the early stages of council AI adoption.<\/p>\n
In Scotland, the report noted that councils such as Fife and Glasgow City are using AI in waste and recycling.<\/p>\n
Some 70% of Scottish councils were said to have high levels of \u201cdata maturity\u201d, ahead of other parts of the UK.<\/p>\n
The research was carried out by Heriot\u2011Watt University\u2019s intelligent automation systems lab (IAS), and AI specialists GoLLM.<\/p>\n
Dr Luciana Blaha, IAS lab lead at Heriot-Watt University, said: \u201cScotland\u2019s progress is being driven by a co-ordinated national approach, strong collaboration across the public sector and close partnerships with universities.<\/p>\n
\u201cNational programmes such as the Scottish AI Strategy, the Scottish AI Alliance, the Digital Office and Cosla\u2019s governance frameworks have given councils the confidence and structure they need to move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cScotland\u2019s co-ordinated approach and strong partnerships put it in a strong position to be a key node for the next phase of public\u2011sector AI adoption, setting an example for the rest of the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Blaha added: \u201cThe wider UK findings show a sector keen to adopt AI but held back by uneven data foundations, culture and limited capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found that most councils are still in a difficult middle ground, where they recognise the potential of AI but lack the data foundations, confidence and governance strategy to use it safely and at scale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is huge variation between councils, often shaped by leadership priorities, legacy systems and the speed at which clear guidance is developing, which makes it much harder for many to move beyond early experimentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite this, we saw encouraging examples where AI was introduced in ways that strengthened services and supported staff rather than replaced them, which shows responsible, community\u2011focused, and sustainable adoption initiatives which differ by region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland is the UK\u2019s leading nation for local government adoption of artificial intelligence, a study into how councils…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[17568,1942,748,4884,762,712,122905,16,15,234636],"class_list":["post-813288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-adoption","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-britain","tag-great-britain","tag-heriot-watt-university","tag-scotland","tag-scottish-councils","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-watt-university"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116196413749276729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}