{"id":409542,"date":"2026-02-05T16:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409542\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:00:11","slug":"greater-manchester-council-to-use-ai-to-automate-mundane-administrative-tasks-and-gradually-reduce-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409542\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Manchester council to use AI to ‘automate mundane administrative tasks’ and ‘gradually reduce workforce’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Council bosses say the new tools will also ‘improve services’.\"Greater<\/p>\n

Bury town hall (stock image)(Image: ABNM Photography)<\/p>\n

A Greater Manchester council wants to use artificial intelligence as it battles to plug a \u00a316m budget black hole. Bury<\/a> council plans to use AI to \u2018automate mundane administrative tasks\u2019 and \u2018gradually reduce the workforce\u2019.<\/p>\n

As part of a \u00a33m \u2018strategic workforce review\u2019, council bosses are looking at new technology to phase out vacant manager posts and help reduce reliance on agency staff.<\/p>\n

Around \u00a31m in savings are expected to come from directly from how current vacancies are handled, as well as \u2018additional use of AI to streamline processes\u2019.<\/p>\n

Bury council is one of the first Greater Manchester authorities to consider such a broad spectrum of AI tools. Others such as Tameside<\/a> and Manchester are already using the tech for specific departments.<\/p>\n

Coun Sean Thorpe, Bury\u2019s deputy leader and cabinet member for finance and transformation, said: \u201cWithout continuing to transform the council, we\u2019re going to go under. So we\u2019ve got to look at all possibilities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bury town hall(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to survive we\u2019ve got to embrace this technology. Bury\u2019s scale is a risk and an opportunity. We\u2019re quite a small council, so we don\u2019t have hundreds of resources, which means it\u2019s more of an imperative to embrace [AI].\u201d<\/p>\n

The council is proposing the roll-out of various pieces of software tailored to individual departments.<\/p>\n

Every directorate has been considered during a \u2018robust\u2019 two-year process.<\/p>\n

Software ranges from everyday AI assistants like Microsoft Co-Pilot, to specific tools like Magic Notes, a program designed to help social and health workers with note taking.<\/p>\n

Others target specific processes like summarising consultation responses \u2013 which can take up a lot of officer time as they sift through hundreds of pages of feedback \u2013 or automatically sending updates on planning and licensing applications to residents.<\/p>\n

The council is one of the first Greater Manchester authorities to consider such a broad spectrum of AI tools \u2013 though others such as Tameside and Manchester are already using the tech for specific departments.<\/p>\n

The move comes after Derby City Council was rumoured to have saved \u00a312m and \u2018filled 100 vacant posts\u2019 after rolling-out AI tools early last year, according to claims by their chief executive.<\/p>\n

The new tech at Bury won\u2019t result in any immediate redundancies. But Coun Thorpe said that \u2018over time\u2019 it will shrink the number of employees at the council by not replacing all staff who leave.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cJust by being more efficient, you can save time. Doing things inefficiently costs money. Over time, you\u2019ll reduce your workforce. It would be through natural attrition over time so we can reduce our overheads that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, we\u2019re not saying we\u2019re going to bring in AI and get rid of all administrative roles, because you still need people in the organisation. But it\u2019s an opportunity for those people to grow and develop in other ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shift towards AI is not just about cost-cutting, according to the council, but also improving services by \u2018taking mundanity out of jobs\u2019. For example, social workers could \u2018spend more time with residents solving complex problems in people\u2019s lives\u2019 by cutting out time spent on note-keeping, according to the finance boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bit scary because you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know,\u201d Coun Thorpe added. \u201cWe want to make sure that when we\u2019re making decisions about implementing AI, they\u2019ve gone through a robust decision-making process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposals will be discussed along with other cost-saving measures for the budget at a scrutiny meeting on Tuesday, February 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Council bosses say the new tools will also ‘improve services’. Bury town hall (stock image)(Image: ABNM Photography) A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,2436,152170,1294,2195,229,90,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-409542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-bury","tag-bury-council","tag-economy","tag-employment","tag-politics","tag-science","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}