From AI trial to council-wide confidence: How Renfrewshire transformed customer services

Residents expect simple, 24/7 access to local government customer services; while digital channels have expanded, the telephone remains a vital route for residents – particularly for urgent, complex or sensitive enquiries that genuinely require human support.

Renfrewshire Council has taken a practical, evidence-led approach to addressing this challenge. Following a controlled customer service AI trial, the council launched Millie, Scotland’s first AI-powered phone assistant, supporting residents around the clock while ensuring complex cases are handled by human advisors.

Since launch, the solution has answered hundreds of thousands of resident enquiries, the solution has already supported over 390,000 resident calls, demonstrating how AI can operate safely and effectively at scale, reduced pressure on contact centre teams, and built confidence to explore wider AI opportunities across the council.

The approach has also received national recognition through multiple service delivery and innovation awards, including: Overall “Council of the Year 2025 for Service Delivery” at the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Awards, “Leading Innovation” award at the 2025 COSLA Awards, and the “Digital Public Services Award” at the Scottish Public Service Awards 2025.

What you’ll learn

• Why Renfrewshire Council chose to start its AI journey with customer services
• How governance, ethics and human-in-the-loop controls were addressed
• What residents actually experience when they call an AI-enabled service
• How data and evidence were used to assure senior leaders and elected members
• How early success created confidence to explore wider council AI use cases
• Practical lessons for councils considering their own AI journey

In this webinar, speakers from Renfrewshire Council and ICS.AI will share the council’s journey from trial to award-winning service delivery, focusing on what worked, what was learned, and what other councils can take from the experience.

Who should attend

This webinar will be of interest to:

• Directors of Customer Services and Contact Centre Managers
• Heads of Digital Transformation
• Chief Executives and senior leaders considering AI strategy
• AI, Transformation, Change and Service Improvement Leads
• Elected members with an interest in responsible AI adoption

You’ll also learn how councils can take a first step through a customer service AI trial, using real data to reduce risk, build confidence, and inform wider AI adoption decisions.