It only takes a minute

In Autumn 2024 we wrote about some of the ways we've been using using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve local services.

Since then we've been working with The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence, which is now part of the Government Digital Service (GDS), and a group of councils on another use of AI.

We've been trialling Minute, a secure AI transcription service that produces customisable summaries and reports in the formats that public servants need.

Through our work with GDS, Minute now has a specific template for planning committees, which does the following:

• Drafts a transcription of the video recording of the meeting, identifying who said what and when.
• Predicts where each section of the meeting starts, based on the agenda of that meeting.
• Drafts the minutes, according to the individual agenda of that meeting.
• The draft can then be manually edited or updated through the further use of AI, to ensure it's an accurate account of the meeting.
• One the draft is deemed accurate it can be downloaded from Minute for publication online.

Like all our use of AI, Minute could be used to assist our work, not make decisions and in this case not to create the final record of a meeting, so the minutes you see published online will have been created by council officer, helped by Minute.

There's huge potential for Minute to transcribe and summarise meetings across the public sector, provided controls including keeping a "human in the loop" are in place, and we'll be exploring these within our own organisation in the coming months.

In the spirit of cross sector collaboration we're happy to work with other councils who would like to improve this template, but please direct any questions about Minute itself to minute-support@ai.gov.uk.