North Yorkshire's AI disrupters

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) is growing within local government. What are the emerging lessons from a council unafraid to experiment with a service-led approach to transformation?Cath Ritchie is head of AI strategy and innovation at North Yorkshire Council. Speaking about the council's experience in driving innovation and its strategic approach to integrating AI within local government, she says: ‘We grew the approach that worked for us. We planned the [innovation] team and how it might work and how it dovetails into bigger projects, programmes and data teams, and we tried things.'At a webinar facilitated by The Local Government AI Community UK (LGAi.uk), a free innovation hub and collaboration platform for those exploring AI and emerging technology in local government and public services, she namechecks the tools the council began deploying. These include Beam Notes for turning raw information into structured case notes and reports, Synthesia for automated translation and an AI policy buddy called Polly– a private GPT trained on a library of all the local and national legislation, procedures and guidance relating to children's services. The council also uses Hanc, an AI housing and care policy buddy, among other tools.‘The big thing was to give it just a start, and now we're moving into phase two,' says Ritchie. She highlights the council's use of a four-stage process: Scan, Test, Scale, and Adopt.• Scan: Networking and identifying opportunities through internal and external connections.• Test: Time-boxed experimentation with specific technologies or ideas, such as Discovery Days where experts problem-solve with service staff.• Scale: Expanding successful tests to broader teams to ensure they work at scale.• Adopt: Integrating proven solutions into corporate ways of working.Innovation must be service-led rather than top-down, Ritchie emphasises. To encourage this, the council uses an innovation panel composed of cross-organisational leaders nominated for their willingness to disrupt traditional processes. The team is moving toward a coaching model where the innovation team acts as facilitators for these departmental champions.Ritchie says: ‘What we want to move to is to try big things, to disrupt some of the ways we deliver our services. So rather than the smaller techy focus on things, it's about how can we reframe how we do some of our services. So this is a process.'For the tools required for AI implementation, the council provides a tiered access model. All office-based staff have access to basic Copilot via the standard office package. Specialist roles receive targeted tools, such as Polly and Hanc. She says while some tools may not provide immediate cashable savings, they drive significant productivity, staff well-being, and recruitment advantages by reducing administrative burdens.The council is transitioning from generative AI to the agentic AI agenda, and this month published an agentic AI playbook in collaboration with the Local Government Association ‘that is there as a resource for anyone to use'. An agentic AI working group is being set up. ‘So this is about operationalising that learning together, and again, we'll bring that learning back to the sector.'Ritchie highlights the use of ethical impact assessment to evaluate technical security, transparency, and climate impact. She notes that safety includes both technical data governance and psychological safety for staff.The latter involves ensuring they feel happy and confident about the tools, and are allowed to use them.Innovation is everyone's responsibility, she believes. ‘We all have a role to play. We need that leadership and organisation-wide commitment. Firstly to make it happen, but also to make it matter. I absolutely don't want my team to be doing little bits of innovation in a corner that helps a small team. It will help the whole organisation.'People should be expected to use AI ‘as part of their job, as part of their role, as part of their service, so we want to see that in leadership as well', she adds.There's a need ‘to build the catalyst', stresses Ritchie. ‘So whether it's a team or a service or a panel, there is some "doing" that underpins this kind of culture change.' Within leadership what's needed is someone ‘whose job it is to drive it, and that's what we do'. She tells leadership to ‘be enthusiastic, but yes – it spreads like wildfire'.While it might be ‘a bit risky to crack on and do innovation, we have to remember that there was a risk in not innovating as well', she concludes.A playbook for agentic Ai in local government can be viewed at www.local.gov.uk/publications/playbook-agentic-ai-local-government

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North Yorkshire's AI disrupters

By Ann McGauran | 27 October 2026

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