A NUMBER of public services in Gwent are to spend more than £1.2 million with Amazon on a programme to use AI technology.
Shared Resources Services, the technology partnership formed by a number of Gwent councils and the police, is to approve global tech giant Amazon as its preferred procurement partner for two AI programmes.
It will use AWS Professional Services for an AI Management Hub, to work across the various public service partners, and a Pro Services Partner for the Digital Front Door initiative intended to deal with queries from the public.
The contract is being awarded without competition under a legal exemption as the computer systems used across the four councils, as well as Gwent Police and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, are too closely integrated with their existing providers to make a competitive bidding process viable.
The AI Management Hub is intended to allow artificial intelligence to be integrated safely into systems used by all the partners who at present have been using free AI tools which the Shared Resource Service describes as an “avoidable risk”.
It also said individual approaches to using AI, across partners, means it used without integration or oversight which also leads to duplication and uneven progress.
The first year of the contract will establish the secure AI management hub and core AI tools for staff as a controlled replacement for free AI tools and establish the Front Door.
The SRS provides technology services for Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen councils as well as the police and police and crime commissioner.
Monmouthshire County Council has already committed to spending nearly £600,000 on AI services through the SRS over three years including a system that will collect and collate data already collected by councils on children.
Details of the contract for the partnership are contained in a report published by Torfaen Borough Council which states year one cost of the programme will be £318,000 per partner or £1.272m across all SRS partners.
