The Scottish Government has today announced its latest set of innovators in its CivTech challenge programme, selected to solve public sector problems with new and ground breaking solutions. This includes the Scottish AI Alliance partnered challenge on the use of AI to enable inclusive access to public services.

After a rigorous and engaging selection process with seven organisations putting forward their ideas, the Scottish Government’s AI team has selected the company Insights Driven to take forward the challenge of “How to use AI to enable more inclusive access to public sector services, starting with disabled people.”

The Challenge was aimed at tackling inequalities within public service delivery, and sought to find creative solutions which harness innovations within AI to actively deconstruct barriers in a disabling world.

Inclusive access to public sector services is vital, with nearly 1 in 5 working-age adults being disabled by barriers in society. How to embed inclusive communication within Government and across the public sector will be a journey of continual improvement, and the entries from the seven companies exhibited a strong field of competition in the sector driving forward that journey.

The winning company, Insights Driven, has stated:

We are focused on delivering value and better outcomes for customers. We deliver this value by understanding the customer needs and then utilising the capabilities of AI, data and analytics and product design thinking.

We are honoured to have been selected into the Accelerator Programme by The Scottish Government and CivTech as partners to develop a solution where AI, data and digital products are used to enable more inclusive access to public services, starting with disabled people.

Throughout this Challenge, Insights Driven will work with public bodies and people with direct experience of barriers to accessing public services. Of particular focus are telephone-based services, where AI solutions can be built to help deconstruct barriers for many people.

Boosting inclusive communication will create more inclusive public services for a vast range of people across Scottish society: people who have lost their voice, have difficulty speaking or are deaf or hard of hearing but do not use British Sign Language, people who have a learning disability, lack dexterity to select number buttons, or live with lifelong or acquired conditions, such as cerebral palsy or motor neurone disease.

In a press release issued by CivTech today, Ivan McKee, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise for Scotland, said:

The success of CivTech is incredible to see. The £6 million in extra funding from Scottish Government this year has bolstered the Challenges and created some incredible opportunities for third sector organisations to get involved.

It’s great to see such a broad range of Challenges met with exciting proposed solutions. In Scotland we need to be at the forefront of innovation to drive job creation and investment and to help tackle major global issues such as the climate emergency, biodiversity, care and wellbeing, and energy consumption. The CivTech programme plays a vital role in bringing the public and private sectors together in a collaborative effort to effect positive change.

Where accessibility and innovation combine, we all benefit from a more inclusive and equitable society. With CivTech and its successes we can ensure that AI is trustworthy, ethical and inclusive for all.

For further information on the challenge application or CivTech process, please look to the challenge page on the CivTech site, and the previous blogpost.