- DWP announces four/six-year project to implement artificial intelligence in benefits call centres
- Claimants are on the rise and millions of man hours were wasted
- The British government is about to undergo a much bigger transformation
The UK’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is now seeking a contract for plans to deploy a conversational AI agent to help handle some benefits-related calls in the hope it can both improve experiences and reduce costs.
Part of the cost reduction will involve the up to £23.4 million (including VAT) spent on the project, up from the previous £10.8 million estimate, as the government aims to drive for more efficiency.
The tender notice calls for a natural language call management system that allows citizens to speak naturally, enabling the system to identify intent and route calls efficiently.
The DWP wants to use AI to answer the phone
Key outcomes will include routing calls to the right human agent in the first instance and offering personalized self-service and call diversion options to reduce the burden on human workers.
Not only must the solution be UK-based and hosted on a dedicated cloud, but it must also be compliant with a range of frameworks, including GDPR/DPA and HMG’s Security Policy Framework.
The government is now inviting bids and the project is expected to run between 6 July 2026 and 5 July 2030. Two optional 12-month extensions, taking it to July 2032, could be offered.
The DWP’s AI project comes against a worrying backdrop – over the four years spanning May 2019 to 2023, the UK recorded an 11.8% increase in claimants, equivalent to around 2.4 million extra individuals, putting a huge strain on the existing system.
By 2022-2023, as many as 31.6 million call minutes could have been avoided, a national audit report for the DWP revealed.
Companies seeking public contracts have until January 16 to inquire and until February 2 to request participation. Confirmation of the winning bid is expected by June 1 at the latest.
More importantly, this comes as the UK government admits its critical failure to secure all systems by 2030, highlighting a much bigger technological shift in Downing Street.
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