New report on the aspirations and applications of AI in social housing

New research from independent research company, Service Insights Ltd, in partnership with colleagues from Leeds University Business School and sector partners, has undertaken research on the adoption of AI in the social housing sector, as well as the aspirations of the sector when it comes to Artificial Intelligence.

Drawing on survey responses from 220 employees and 50 in-depth interviews across 10 housing associations, the report provides a comprehensive overview of how AI fits into the social housing landscape today, and how AI inherently interacts with the core mission and objectives of social housing.

Report findings were grouped into five key themes: organisational perceptions, service quality and productivity, decision-making, trust, risk, and ethics, equality, diversity and inclusion and data quality.

Key points to note include:

·       Operational usage: Whilst 22% report AI tools being made available for staff in specific roles, more (around 31% of staff) are actually using it in practice. Those currently using AI in their working roles are overwhelmingly positive about the benefits of the technology (93%), suggesting a strong desire for use once deployed. There remains a smaller group of employees who do not want to use AI due to a perceived lack of trust in the technology, lack of accuracy, deskilling of employees, and a belief in protecting the value of human interaction.

·       Aspirations and applications of AI: Our findings suggest that current applications of AI in social housing are predominantly focussed on the use and adoption of Large Language Models (LLM’s) such as Open AI’s ChatGPT, whilst aspirations of AI predominantly focus upon predictive models for core services.

·       AI is not always being implemented with the values of social housing providers in mind - Our study suggests that core sector values and strategic priorities such as equality, diversity, and inclusion may risk being overlooked

·       The use of AI may compromise critical thinking capabilities: Our research suggests that the use of AI may act to reduce or limit critical thinking within service operations.

·       The impact of AI on decision making could be profound: One of the starkest findings from the research interviews was the view that decision making processes will always require human oversight. However, other findings from literature and desk top research bring this into question – when technology speeds up processes and AI capabilities become embedded in applications, this can lead to reduced scrutiny of automated decisions.

This study also raises some important questions for future debate and areas of research. We

suggest these include:

·       How can AI be implemented with the values and ethics of social housing?

·       How can the social housing sector adopt AI with a greater emphasis upon addressing issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion?

·       What will be the impact of organisations adopting AI who may not be considered to be ‘data ready’? (i.e. organisations without a ‘single version of truth’, holding siloed data, inaccurate, out of date, and irrelevant data).

·       How can the social housing sector keep pace with the invention and reinvention of AI technologies?

·       How can the social housing sector ensure that tenants are kept at the centre of AI technology adoption in future service design?

The report can be downloaded at https://bcn.co.uk/researchAIinsocialhousing or contact Dr Simon Williams, Managing Director, Service Insights Ltd at info@serviceinsights.co.uk