Using AI in Scotland's public and third sector bodies: what works?
Tuesday 19th May 2026
Artificial intelligence is moving fast from buzzword to everyday tool in Scotland’s public services. With tight budgets and rising demand, councils, the NHS, central government and the third sector are all looking for smarter ways to work.
This conference explores how AI is already being used – and where it could go next. It examines real examples across consumer-facing services, redesigned journeys and the back-office 'engine room' of casework, planning and decision support.
We’ll also tackle trust, governance and people. That includes FOI and GDPR, fairness and transparency, value for money, and how to support staff through change rather than replace them.
Delegates will leave with a clear view of where AI can help now, the risks to watch for and practical ideas to take back to their own organisations – all focused on building smarter, fairer, more human public services in Scotland.
The conference will focus on three themes:
- Designing better digital front doors for consumers
- Smarter decisions, smarter operations – using AI behind the scenes
- Building AI-ready public and third sectors – money, risk and people
Benefits of attending
- Understand how to deploy AI at the front door with smarter, fairer consumer access
- Plan enhanced service design and user experience – designing better journeys
- Deliver better communications and engagement – clear, personal and timely
- Transform casework, assessment and decision support
- Harness data analysis, insight and planning
- Deploy AI for smarter back-office operations
- Increase the value of every pound by applying AI to spend, procurement and assets
- Enhance compliance, governance and risk management
- Support internal HR & workforce management
Who should attend
This conference is designed for senior leaders, managers and practitioners across Scotland’s public and third sectors who are responsible for service delivery, transformation or governance – including, but not limited to, chief executives, directors, heads of service, CIOs/CDOs, digital, data and AI leads, policy and programme managers, finance and procurement professionals, HR and workforce planners and improvement and performance teams – as well as board members, elected members and trustees who need to understand what AI means in practice for their organisations and the people they serve.
Speakers
Mark Watson
Chief Civil Architect
Leidos UK
Agenda
Tuesday 19th May 2026
09:00 Chair's opening remarks
Session 1: Designing better digital front doors for citizens
09:05 Keynote Speaker
09:20 Question and answer session
09:30 Deploying AI at the front door – smarter, fairer consumer access
- Creating intelligent digital front doors
- Proactive appointment management
- Inclusive access by design
09:45 Enhanced service design and user experience – designing better journeys
- Map real journeys of user behaviour
- Understand different needs for more more targeted, relevant services
- Data-driven user understanding from real usage data to guide co-design and engagement
- Smarter usability testing
10:00 Better communications and engagement – clear, personal and timely
- Faster content creation for press releases, web updates, newsletters and social posts
- Creating personalised plain language messaging
- Smarter consultations, from submissions to public meetings and engagement events
- Consistent tone, clarity and jargon free language
10:15 Question and answer session
10:30 Comfort break
Session 2: Smarter decisions, smarter operations – using AI behind the scenes
10:45 Focussing casework, assessment and decision support
Mark Watson, Chief Civil Architect, Leidos UK
Linkedin
- Guided case decision support while keeping people in charge
- Fair and fast prioritisation for better intervention in critical areas
- Consistent eligibility checks
- Sorting and quality assurance, separating simple and complex cases with policy and past practice in mind
11:00 Harnessing data analysis, insight and planning
- See the demand that is coming with predictive modelling
- Optimising resources using data to see the total demand picture
- Test scenario planning safely against impact of policy or budget changes on demand, costs and service levels
- Spot problems early on with real-time dashboards and anomaly detection
11:15 Employing AI for smarter back-office operations
- Doing paperwork faster from reports to standard responses
- Turning meetings into effective actions and outcomes
- Extracting valuable data from PDFs, scans and emails into case management systems and other uses
- Find and manage information with intelligent records management to classify documents, support FOI/GDPR and inform retention/disposal
11:30 Question and answer session
11:45 Comfort break
Session 3: Building AI-ready public and third sectors – money, risk and people
12:00 Getting more from every pound – applying AI to spend, procurement and assets
- Shine a light on spending by using analytics to spot duplication, under-used contracts and shared procurement opportunities
- Smarter tender evaluation that highlights strengths, weaknesses and risks for decision-makers
- Optimise maintenance of physical assets and equipment using data and failure history
- Forecast and manage demand for key supplies in all service areas to cut excess stock and reduce waste
12:15 Enhancing compliance, governance and risk management
- Compliance scanning of documents and emails to flag potential GDPR, FOI or security issues
- Using AI-assisted redaction and preparation of documents for FOI responses and publication
- Governing AI use with prompts and outputs to support reporting on AI systems
- Continuous monitoring of finance, payroll and HR data to spot unusual patterns or potential fraud
12:30 Supporting internal HR & workforce management
- Modelling future skills needs, retirement and turnover to guide recruitment and training
- Fairer, faster recruitment with screening against clear criteria and strong bias safeguards
- Chatbots answering routine questions so that teams can focus on complex issues
- Using listening at scale surveys and analysis of feedback to spot morale and wellbeing issues early
12:45 Question and answer session
13:00 Chair's closing remarks
Speakers
Mark Watson
Chief Civil Architect
Leidos UK
LeidosInc
Mark is the Chief Architect for the Civil Division of Leidos UK.
Working across the Central Government, Devolved Government, Transport and Air Traffic Control sectors, Mark brings a wealth of experience to his customers. Mark is a seasoned professional known for introducing groundbreaking solutions to the market. His achievements include spearheading innovative projects such as Biometric services for Borders, Machine Learning applications, and Digital Twin technology for Intelligent Road Management.
Mark has also led initiatives in Robotic Process Automation for Passport Control and has contributed to Security Accredited Shared Services, significantly reducing ownership costs for Government Departments.
Venue
This conference takes place online.
Fees
How to book
You can book to attend in 3 ways:
- Select book now on the right hand side of this page, fill in the form on that page and click the 'send booking' button
- Call 0131 556 1500
- Email mail@mackayhannah.com
Conference fees
- Delegate fee (includes video recording of the conference) – £169 +VAT
- Group discount – organisations booking 3 or more delegates will receive 50% off every third delegate place (please complete further forms if necessary)
Please note – It is not permissible to share the recording. Please contact us if you wish to share it. See our terms and conditions for further information.
Payment
We do not currently accept payments online and will send you an invoice.
You have the option to pay by bank transfer or card.
Bank details will be included on the invoice.
If you wish to pay by card, please tick the appropriate box on the booking form and a member of our staff will contact you by telephone to take the payment. Alternatively you may call 0131 556 1500.
Terms and conditions
By placing this booking, you agree to the full terms and conditions found via the link at the foot of our website.
