Pembrokeshire County Council appoints ICS.AI to deliver Welsh local government’s most comprehensive AI programme

Pembrokeshire County Council Office

The £4.95m contract will introduce a unified AI platform to improve resident services and aid staff, unlocking millions in potential savings and efficiencies

WALES, UNITED KINGDOM, November 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Pembrokeshire County Council has appointed ICS.AI to deliver a multi-year AI Transformation Programme that will introduce artificial intelligence across resident-facing and staff-facing services, marking the most comprehensive AI adoption programme undertaken by a Welsh local authority to date.

The news comes as the UK’s Minister for AI, Kanishka Narayan, visited Wales and encouraged the country to “reindustrialise itself” for an AI future.

The programme, contracted at £4.95m, follows an AI transformation assessment led by ICS.AI, during which more than 100 council employees took part in 40 hours of collaborative workshops spanning 25 service areas. The assessment identified 108 AI use cases with clear implementation pathways and quantified opportunities to improve service delivery, increase productivity, and reduce costs.

Delivered through ICS.AI’s SMART AI Transformation Programme, the initiative will deploy a unified AI platform incorporating Front Door resident AI solutions, governed AI for staff, and AI agents over an initial three-year period, with the option to extend further.

Pembrokeshire County Council is facing significant financial and demographic pressures, including increasing demand for children’s and adult social care services. Audit Wales has also highlighted concerns around the authority’s long-term financial sustainability and reliance on reserves.

The programme is expected to identify opportunities to deliver between £3.3 million and £6.7 million in savings and efficiencies once fully implemented. ICS.AI has underpinned the programme with a minimum of £2.5 million in savings and efficiencies, subject to the Council implementing the agreed transformation measures.

Phase one of the programme will focus on high-volume, high-impact services designed to deliver early benefits while building confidence in AI across the organisation. This includes:

• SMART Front Door, including:
- Citizen Phone AI assistant, a new generative AI-powered voice service capable of handling more than 230,000 resident calls each year in both Welsh and English.
- Citizen Web AI assistant, providing AI-powered digital self-service for residents.
• Workdesk AI provides AI to staff, including SMART Chat and SMART Notes, with an initial focus on reducing administrative workloads in Adult Social Care and Children’s Services.
• AI-powered inbox management to automate the handling of high-volume council email accounts.
• Drafting support for Individual Development Plans within children’s and education services.
• AI-assisted council tax debt recovery through data unification and automated engagement.

Future phases will extend AI into additional council services, including Freedom of Information requests, adult social care assessments, housing repairs, financial assessments, IT service management and provider intelligence.

Will Bramble, Chief Executive of Pembrokeshire County Council, said: "Like councils across the UK, we are facing increasing demand for services at a time of significant financial pressure. This programme is about embracing innovation to help us protect and improve the services our residents rely on every day.

“Artificial intelligence offers us an opportunity to work smarter, reduce administrative burdens on our workforce, and make it easier for residents to access council services. Importantly, this is about giving our staff better tools so they can focus on delivering support where it matters most. We have taken a careful and considered approach to this investment, ensuring there is strong governance, clear accountability and a focus on measurable outcomes for Pembrokeshire residents."

Leader of the Council, Cllr Tessa Hodgson said: "Pembrokeshire is a forward-looking authority, and we must continue to explore innovative ways to deliver high-quality services in a challenging financial environment. This investment in AI is about improving how residents interact with the Council, supporting our staff to work more efficiently, and ensuring we make the very best use of public funds.”

The programme, which went through a rigorous scrutiny process, has been designed to reflect Pembrokeshire’s unique requirements as one of Wales’ largest counties by area, serving around 125,000 residents across dispersed rural communities. As a Welsh local authority, all resident-facing AI services will be designed to support both Welsh and English equally, ensuring bilingual services without compromising quality.

Martin Neale, Founder and CEO of ICS.AI, added: “Local authorities are under enormous pressure to deliver better outcomes with fewer resources, but AI only creates value when it’s embedded into the way organisations operate. Pembrokeshire has taken a strategic approach by identifying where AI can make the greatest impact across the whole organisation, rather than introducing isolated point solutions. This programme brings together AI for residents, AI for staff and AI agents within a single platform, creating the foundations for long-term transformation.”

ICS.AI's SMART platform is already supporting AI transformation across UK local government, helping councils handle more than 12 million AI interactions each year. The company has also identified savings of £12 million at Derby City Council through a similar transformation approach.

Learn more here: http://ics.ai.

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About Pembrokeshire County Council

Pembrokeshire is a unique and beautiful county. Besides the 125,000 people who live and work here, we also welcome around 2.4 million staying visitors per year. Pembrokeshire County Council provides a diverse and wide-reaching range of services to meet the needs of its residents and visitors. These include education, social services, housing, transport, leisure, library facilities, and planning to name just a few. Our refuse and recycling service has been named the best for recycling in Wales for the last three years. The Council is the biggest employer in the county, with around 6,100 employees and every employee has a key role to play in helping us achieve our vision: Working together, improving lives.

About ICS.AI

ICS.AI is the UK’s fastest-growing profitable AI business, delivering transformative unified AI platforms for the public sector. The SMART: AI Transformation Programme empowers councils, universities, and public organisations to modernise operations, enhance services, and guarantee savings – without lock-in or fragmentation.

Website: https://www.ics.ai

Leah Jones
CommsCo
+44 7770 239888
ljones@thecommsco.com

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