"Traditionally, sorting large volumes of public feedback can take months of manual work by policy teams. In this case, more than 50,000 responses were submitted to the Independent Water Commission. The AI tool - codenamed Consult - categorised and grouped responses into key themes in around two hours, at a total cost of £240. Experts then spent just 22 hours validating the machine's results."
"A comparison of the system's performance against two expert human teams showed the AI agreed with at least one group 83% of the time. By contrast, the two human teams agreed with each other only 55% of the time - suggesting the system enhanced consistency as well as efficiency. Alongside the AI-driven categorisation, civil servants conducted detailed manual reviews of stakeholder submissions to ensure that complex or nuanced feedback was fully considered in the final recommendations."
"The Consult tool has already been deployed successfully elsewhere, including the Scottish Government's consultation on non-surgical cosmetics and the Digital Inclusion Action Plan, which drew nearly 800 responses. In both cases, officials reported significant time savings and greater analytical accuracy. Officials estimate that rolling out the technology across departments could save 75,000 days of manual analysis annually - equivalent to £20 million in"
The UK government developed an in-house AI system within the Humphrey suite to speed public consultation analysis. The Consult tool categorised and grouped over 50,000 responses to the Independent Water Commission in around two hours for a total cost of £240, with experts validating results in 22 hours. The system agreed with at least one human group 83% of the time, while two human teams agreed with each other 55% of the time. Officials combined automated categorisation with manual reviews for nuanced feedback. Deployments in other consultations reported time savings and improved analytical accuracy, with estimated annual savings of 75,000 days and £20 million if rolled out across departments.
Read at Business Matters
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