Michelle Sherrard, Director of Consulting Services, CGI, reflects on recent discussionsaround the role of AI in Northern Ireland’s public services and what it could mean for the future of delivery.
The Belfast team, already working closely with the Department of Justice and the Northern Ireland Courts & Tribunal Service to revolutionise service delivery, is well placed to connect with the wider public sector to gain direct insight into the real challenges they face - not only with AI but also with broader digital transformation.
“At last month’s Chief Executives’ Forum briefing event,AI in Action: From Hype to Real-World Results, supported by CGI, senior leaders from across Northern Ireland’s public sector came together to explorethe transformative potential of AI in Northern Ireland’s public sector and how it is beginning to deliver tangible, real-world impact.
Keynote speakerDr. Diane Gutiw, Vice-President and Global AI Research Lead at CGI, emphasisedtheimportance of movingbeyond theoretical discussions of AI and demonstratingits value in practice. There was a real sense ofmomentum in the room aroundthe drive to turnideas into tangible outcomes and the audience was engaged throughout, eager to explore how AI could be applied in practice.
Dr. Gutiwremindedattendees that AI is not new and thatneural networks have been accessible to data scientists and statisticians since the 1950s. Its recent momentum comes from the convergence of several powerful enablers. Natural language interfaces have made AI easier to use, access to large datasets has grown dramatically, computing power has surged, and cloud platforms have placed advanced tools within reach of almost every organisation. She highlighted that while we frequentlyhear about the latest breakthroughs, ethical dilemmas, and potential threats, far less attention is given to the real-world problems AI can help solve.
Hearing firsthand how CGI is supporting the Hywel DdaUniversity Health Board in Wales,with its journey to become a fully digitally enabled organisation, reinforcedDr Gutiw’s message that ‘the time has come to move beyond talking about AI and focus on real, complex challenges facing public service delivery and explore opportunities for how AI can genuinely improve our lives’.
In January 2025, CGI embarked on a £75 million, 10-year partnership with Hywel Dda University Health Board to transform healthcare services across Mid and West Wales. The initiative aims to elevate patient care, streamline operations, and support community-driven health and social care. Through this collaboration, CGI will help Hywel Dda improve patient outcomes and operational efficiencies by driving the strategic modernisation of health and social care, with digital transformation as a key enabler. This includes upgrading systems and facilities for healthcare professionals, exploring innovative solutions such as AI integration, and fostering closer collaboration between health and social care teams.
Anthony Tracey, Director of Digital at Hywel Dda University Health Board,added significant value to the briefing event, sharing his experience of AI deployment within his organisation. He highlighted several key use cases, including AI-driven support for faster and more accurate interpretation of CT, MRI, and X-Ray images, enhancedreal-time analysis of clinical data such as observations and wearables to enable early detection of patient deterioration, and the optimisation of patient flow, staff rostering and overall productivity. Notably, he shared that an ambient AI scribe has the potential to reduce GP documentation time by 25-35%, a statistic that drew keen interest from CEF members from the healthcare sector.
Expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to share his knowledge, Anthony hoped that he could support Northern Ireland public sector leaders in embracing AI, not just as a technology but as a catalyst, for meaningful service improvement and citizen impact.
Marking a new chapter for the Chief Executives’ Forum, the briefing session was the first official event chaired by the new CEF Chair, Judith Gillespie CBE, who reminded attendees of the vital importance of understanding AI’s transformative potential, ensuring that public services are designed to meet the needs of all our citizens. She added that it is equally important for users to understand how these technologies are being applied, ensuring trust is built into every deployment.
A particularly valuable contribution came from Professor Helen McCarthy, the NI Executive’s Scientific and Technology Adviser, who provided insight into the early stages of developing a Northern Ireland AI Strategy and Action Plan. Her presentation highlighted the potential for AI to drive innovation and efficiency across public services, representing a significant step toward building a future-ready public sector that is responsive, digitally enabled, and capable of meeting the evolving needs of the population. Professor McCarthy was clear that ‘AI is not about replacing any of the workers, this is about making their lives easier so that we can upskill or get them on to other tasks’.
As expected, the discussion emphasised how data and evidence can enable the public sector to make better decisions.This aligns closely with CGI’s blog, ‘Data enablement: The foundation for AI and transformation’,which highlights that making data reliable, accessible, and actionable is essential for driving sustainable change and achieving tangible outcomes in public services: ‘Data enablement goes far beyond building analytics or applying AI. It is about bringing data to the surface, understanding its whereabouts and journey, where it holds value or creates friction, and how it can be made reliable and usable. It is about seeing data as a core enabler of every decision, every service, and every outcome we care about’.
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Building on this, growing data maturity isn’t about collecting more or adding complexity – it’s about making better use of the data we already have. The discussion also highlighted that the simplest way to know whether a public sector policy is effective is to look at the data and let it tell the story.
There’s no doubt that digital transformation and AI in our public services can seem daunting, but when you bring together experts like Dr. Gutiw, practitioners like Anthony who’ve implemented it successfully, and those shaping the strategies and action plans like Professor McCarthy, it becomes clear that it isn’t so scary after all.
I have every confidence that attendees left the CEF event with a clearer sense of how AI can move from theory to practice in the public sector. The discussions reinforced the importance of strong data foundations, collaboration across sectors, and learning from real-world examples to drive transformation. Most importantly, the event showed that while AI can feel daunting, with the right expertise, strategies, and evidence in place, it becomes a powerful tool to improve services and decision-making.”
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