The government’s AI tool Consult is helping to speed up analysis of responses to a government-commissioned review of the water sector.

Consult was able to sort over 50,000 responses into key themes in around 2 hours and cost around £240.

Policy experts were then able to use their time to focus on using themes and categorised responses to inform recommendations for their independent report, rather than sorting tens of thousands of individual responses.

The work of Consult was compared to two groups of experts. It agreed with one or both of the groups almost 83 per cent of the time, while the two well-practiced human groups only agreed with each other 55 per cent of the time.

The tool has already been used this year to support the analysis of the Scottish government’s consultation on non-surgical cosmetics and to sort responses to the Digital Inclusion Action Plan.

It is expected that the tool could help save officials from 75,000 days of manual analysis every year, which costs £20 million in staffing costs.

Digital Government Minister Ian Murray said: "This shows the huge potential for technology and AI to deliver better and more efficient public services for the public and provide better value for the taxpayer.

"By taking on the basic admin, Consult is giving staff time to focus on what matters – taking action to fix public services. In the process, it could save the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds."