AI Foundation and Digital Front Door Services

Location

Description

SRS partner services face sustained pressure from rising demand, increasing complexity, workforce constraints and growing expectations for digital access. Many core processes remain manual, fragmented, or duplicated, reducing productivity, increasing risk and limiting staff capacity for higher-value work.Partners are currently responding independently, trialling small-scale automation or using free AI tools without integration or consistent oversight. This creates duplication, uneven progress and avoidable risk.The proposed investment provides a shared AI Management Hub as a common foundation, enabling AI to be integrated safely into systems, data and workflows across all partners. It supports governance, service resilience and value for money through a single coordinated approach.Year one will deliver the shared AI Foundation, including a secure AI Management Hub integrated with existing systems and data, core AI tools for staff, a controlled replacement for ungoverned free AI tools, and the initial Digital Front Door capability for AI-assisted handling of citizen enquiries.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• None found

Legal Justification

The SRS and its partner authorities operate a shared cloud environment based on AWS, which underpins critical services, cross-partner integration, and existing digital programmes. This environment includes established architecture, security design, network connectivity (including direct cloud connections), and interdependent systems across multiple organisations. Due to this existing architecture, the requirement cannot be met by an alternative supplier without fundamental redesign of the platform and associated services. Transition to an alternative provider would introduce disproportionate technical and operational difficulties, including: • Re-engineering of existing applications, integrations, and automation pipelines • Reconfiguration of network connectivity and security controls • Risk to live service continuity across multiple authorities • Disruption to shared data and interoperability arrangements • Duplication of infrastructure during migration, increasing cost and cyber risk These impacts go beyond normal commercial switching considerations and represent a material technical barrier to competition, meaning there is no reasonable alternative capable of delivering the requirement without unacceptable disruption.

Other Information

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