Aida
An AI powered personalised ASC tool, delivered through WhatsApp
WHAT IS AIDA?
Aida is an AI-driven approach giving people access to all your trusted Adult Social Care information and advice – and that of your partners and providers – in a new and more personal way. By identifying all the relevant information and advice from websites, documents, leaflets, videos, we are able to put this curated information into a ‘box’, and build a digital assistant who communicates with people – using only this trusted advice – in a more intuitive and accessible way.
Adult Social Care information and advice can be complicated to navigate and hard to understand, often services are investigated or accessed at a time of crisis and the information can be overwhelming, baffling and/or hard to find. Aida develops an approach with local authorities and their partners, which adds a digital assistant to the team, one that is available 24/7, can manage hundreds of conversations simultaneously and pulls information live from your care directories.
Aida has been co-designed with Norfolk County Council, Bradford Council and West Northamptonshire Council and has been specifically developed to reduce demand at the front door, make it easier for people to find the right information more quickly, help manage expectations around ASC, better support unpaid carers, enable the ongoing conversation and much more.
“The main thing that is attractive to us is around the different languages – there are over 150 languages that are spoken in Bradford – the fact that Aida can communicate with some in their own language is a real bonus. I’d had previous meetings and demonstrations being shown chatbots – and this is really different – and I’m really impressed, as are my colleagues. We want to ensure Annie [Bradford’s version of Aida] can give ASC information quickly and prevent people having to come through to the front door for signposting queries; it’s been really nice to see Annie grow and develop.”
Karen Hudson – Service Manager, Independence Advice Hub
Bradford Council
“In Norfolk we have an estimated 90,000 carers, but only a small proportion are known to us and have some kind of support. We’re hoping with this tech, that we will be able to reach a much wider cohort, as WhatsApp is generally a really simple tech to use and – with the support of our coaches – we can assist people to use it. Cora is Norfolk’s first public facing use of AI, we’re really excited to be launching her to support our unpaid carers.”
Gail Harvey – Digital Inclusion Strategy Programme Manager
Norfolk County Council
THE TWO FACES OF THE DIGITAL ASSISTANT
PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNELS
Aida is primarily designed for use on WhatsApp, as this is the most popular channel with 65% of UK adults saying that WhatsApp is their main online communication service (Ofcom). However we are also able to deploy digital assistants on SMS, Web, App, Messenger and other digital channels.
ORGANISATIONAL DASHBOARDS
All the conversations had with the digital assistants are fully audited within a cloud based dashboard. Where conversations take place in different languages they are auto-translated, each conversation is automatically summarised with key themes and points brought out, and a range of metrics are collected covering everything from time of day, length of conversation, where the information was drawn from and more.
FEATURES
Allowing people to have a conversation with your ASC curated content
Available via range of popular channels (e.g. web, WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS etc)
Digital assistant can interact with external systems (e.g. Care Directories)
Multi-lingual out of the box
Available 24/7 through text and voice messaging
Council has full control over the trusted & curated knowledge the digital assistant draws from
Real time conversation audits available via a dashboard to monitor conversations, as well as providing a range of metrics and a summary of each conversation
Inbuilt risk assessment to flag and escalate safeguarding issues
Ability to build feedback loops to have an ‘ongoing conversation’ with people and/or schedule ‘check-ins’ to ensure people are safe and well
Sentiment analysis to help understand how users feel during the conversation
BENEFITS
Reducing demand at the front door
Directing people to trusted, curated ASC content and allow them to navigate it using their own language, terminology, situation and questions
Available outside call centre hours on a channel/device people know and understand
Enquiries on WhatsApp remain available after the conversation, to allow people to return to ASC information, advice and links
Fully outsourced IT solution with cloud based dashboards for management and metrics
Support with content curation
Shareable assets including IT questionnaires, cyber and security assurances, DPIA, risk register & more
Ability for call centre staff to also use the ‘digital assistant’
Co-designed with councils, tested with unpaid carers, people who draw on care and support services and community partners
Ongoing evidence and business case support built against your KPIs and metrics
Council partners are expecting Aida to be equivalent to 1FTE
AIDA DEMOS
TECHNICAL PARTNER
Bullet Digital Solutions is an AI ISO 42001 accredited, UK based company, specialising in web application development and digital transformation services. They help businesses improve efficiency by simplifying complex workflows and building customised web applications. Their team of experienced consultants has a strong track record of delivering solutions in various sectors, including the public sector, healthcare, and finance. Bullet has been working with AI and developing services for the public sector, with AI services live across both Adult Social Care and Public Health.
