System C to trial AI assistant to ease NHS social care admin

System C is trialling an AI assistant for social care in the NHS, developed in partnership with Microsoft to support social care practitioners by reducing their admin burden.

The technology, which will  be available within System C’s Liquidlogic social care software,  transcribes audio recordings from assessment or meetings and populates responses to required workflows, with the aim of saving time typing up meeting notes.

It uses a Microsoft-hosted version of the ChatGPT large language model to deliver the solution, generates draft responses into locally defined forms, cross-referencing the responses back to the assessment meetings.

A Proof of Value (POV) exercise is taking place with several local authorities, including Cheshire East Council to establish the benefits of the AI in a real-life environment and demonstrate how it can be used at scale.

Helen Charlesworth-May, executive director of adults, health and integration at Cheshire East Council said: “We are delighted to work with System C in exploring how we can use AI technology to support the work our social care teams do across Cheshire East.

“We are excited about this exercise and exploring other opportunities to embrace AI and improve ways of working for our practitioners.”

System C hopes to make the AI available to all existing customers in spring 2025, once it has met the highest standard of quality and performance in the POV exercise.

Amrik Johal, managing director social care and education at System C, said: “We are excited about the potential that AI presents us to transform practitioner-citizen interactions.

“By automating the interpretation and documentation process, we aim to improve efficiency and accuracy, ultimately enhancing the quality of service provided to citizens.”

System C say that the assistant can save up to 45 minutes per full needs assessment, leading to time savings exceeding £1 million per year, depending on the volume of assessments undertaken.

The firm says that it is also continuing to explore ways in which AI can enhance its offering across local government, including adults and children’s social care case management, education, finance, and commissioning solutions.

Meanwhile, in October 2024, the firm announced the strategic acquisition of CIS Oncology, meaning System C customers will be able to manage their entire prescription journey with a single unified experience through which clinicians and oncologists can prescribe chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy drugs.