Derby City Council: UK's First Unified AI Operating Model — £12M Identified Savings

Derby City Council moved beyond isolated AI pilots to deliver the UK's first unified, organisation-wide AI operating model for local government, in partnership with ICS.AI. The SMART: Unified AI Platform spans resident access, staff productivity, and process automation under one governance structure. Key metrics: 1.4 million phone calls handled; 115,000 web interactions; 2.9 million questions answered; 56% call deflection rate after generative AI upgrade; customer waiting times halved; £12M in identified savings. The 'AI Front Door' is the UK's first 24/7 AI-powered local authority contact centre. 'AI for All' gives every office-based staff member a copilot. A council-wide assessment identified 261 potential AI opportunities across 44 workshops, with 54 prioritised use cases. Derby's approach — one unified platform vs. siloed tools — reduces cost, complexity, and risk. Next phase: agentic AI for secure, end-to-end task completion within defined financial and safeguarding guardrails.