CDPS had prepared some ideas for support before starting the discovery. This was to give respondents suggestions to react to, in addition to being asked what support they recognise they need.  

We asked respondents to comment on the following ideas and put them in rank order from most to least useful to their organisation: 

  1. An automation and AI community of practice. A nationwide group open to Welsh public sector organisations, for discussing and sharing good practice, successful case studies and lessons learned. 
  2. A series of written guides to getting started with AI and RPA. This could be a simple handbook covering the top 10 things to consider before, during and after a deployment and how to measure value. It could also contain templates to use. 
  3. A guide to Microsoft Power Platform, including Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Automate. The guide could include templates and information on how to get the most out of a platform that is usually included in Office 365 subscriptions. 
  4. A suite of formal training courses. It could include things such as how to identify good areas to apply AI and automation to, and how to manage risks.  
  5. An ‘art of the possible’ repository containing videos and live demos of successful case studies. 
  6. Help to build a business case for deploying automation and AI. 

Results 

The results correspond with organisations’ responses to our open question about what support they would value. A community of practice is the clear leader.  

A case study repository, business case support and formal training follow on from this, with relatively small differences between their scores.  

Most respondents commented that they would find all these options helpful. Some commented that the guides – options B and C – might be found online, making them somewhat less valuable than the options with higher scores.  

Recommended next steps 

We believe that creating a new community of practice that all Welsh public sector organisations can join is a sensible next step. CDPS are perfectly placed to create this as we work cross sector. This community would not replace any other groups or communities already operating (e.g. AI health commission).  

Our research has clearly shown that people want a place to come together to discuss and share good practice, successful case studies and lessons learned. Multiple people have already said to us during the interviews that they would join and contribute to a group. 

The group could also be used to help shape future support and guidance and governance and standards. Having a selection of organisational users who could give rapid feedback and help shape future policy could be instrumental in the success of these technologies across Wales. 

One of the key advantages of a cross-sector community is that the group would draw on a wider range of skills and experience, allowing us to upskill and learn from each other faster. 

The community, although facilitated by CDPS, would also need close support by other organisations such as local government, Welsh Government, and health and care. These partners would be crucial in ensuring the organisations they work closely with – such as local authorities and health boards – join and contribute. 

Outcomes 

Possible outcomes from the community include: 

  • The Welsh public sector feeling more confident in deploying automation and AI to improve their public services. 
  • A consistent standard of deployments of automation and AI across Wales. 
  • Learning and developing at a faster rate through the sharing of successes and failures with each other. 
  • The sharing of process and systems to help others speed up their deployments, where digital technology and surrounding processes are similar. 
  • Collaboration on collective projects, supported by CDPS.  
  • The development of stronger collective positions when negotiating with suppliers. 
  • The sharing of data to help build business cases. 
  • A shared understanding of the benefits and risks of using AI. 

Outputs 

The outputs will be shaped and decided by the community, but these could include: 

  • Regular virtual (and where appropriate physical) meetups. 
  • An area to share and access case studies. 
  • Guides and materials that could help people better understand the technologies. 
  • A training course on automation and AI, and things to consider during implementation. 

We propose that we start the community of practice as one group (automation and AI), but it’s possible this could divide into two groups later if that’s what the community needs. 

Automation technology is very different from AI. The first runs on easy-to-understand flows that are easy to code and check. The second usually has elements of self-learning, making it impossible to check every possible output or outcome.  

Therefore, they may need to be discussed and talked about in different ways. That said, AI is a technology being integrated into numerous other technologies, with intelligent automation being a clear area of development. As such, we feel starting with one community of practice is a sensible approach.