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What is ambient scribing?
Ambient scribing or Ambient Scribe Technology is the next step in scribing software. Digital transcription of audio to written word isn’t new, but implementing AI to assist is a new step.
Solutions are now using artificial intelligence to help differentiate between speakers, to help better understand and process accents or dialects, to better define tone and vocal inflections, and to even translate languages.
Ambient scribe technology uses voice capture and AI to automatically document conversations, reducing the administrative burden facing local authority staff. This helps reduce stress but also fatigue-induced errors, improving data or record quality. For local authorities, it represents a practical way to free up frontline staff time whilst improving compliance and service delivery.
Challenges facing Local Authorities
Local authorities in the UK are under sustained pressure from:
- Staff shortages
- Rising client demand
- Strict or even reduced budgets
- More technical audit requirements to ensure greater transparency, sustainability, and safety.
The combination has authorities in a tricky spot; rising demand needs more staff, as do the audit requirements, but staff cost money – more than authorities have in many cases.
The solution is software: computer programmes that can optimise workflows and reclaim time so that existing staff members are better able to perform, and less likely to leave their posts due to stress and burnout.
Combined with the current push for AI adoption and public sector reform, digital transformation remains a hot topic and a must-do for local authorities, but there are still difficulties. Documentation, for example, remains a bottleneck. It can be difficult to properly digitise existing forms, and some case management systems might not be able to communicate with some solutions used by councils and other providers.
As such, the Local Government Association is leading a wider Digital Transformation Programme and continues to assess local councils to assess “technology and digital tools and approaches to deliver services that are better targeted and more efficient.”
The above suggests that incremental improvements are no longer enough. Local authorities need tools that work in the background, supporting staff without adding complexity.
Benefits of AI ambient scribing
The early indicators from organisations using Ambient Scribe Technology are that they are getting a return on investment in the form of:
- Less time spent writing/documenting case notes
- More time supporting service users
- Better detailing of key information
- Greater accuracy of notation, leading to better data insights and trends
- Greater audit readiness through more contemporary and detailed notes
- More flexible working for staff members through mobile solutions
- Greater quality of life for staff workflows, leading to better work-life balance and better job satisfaction
- Subsequent cost savings and staff capacity through staff retention
- Reduced administrative overhead
Challenges facing AI adoption
Not only does Ambient Scribe Technology sound like a mouthful, but when people are told that it’s built on AI architecture the concerns and fears creep in.
This is where providers like The Access Group must fight our corner and show where positives outweigh negatives, but there are valid worries from potential users.
Generally speaking, people are aware of basic AI concepts, but when it comes to niche functionality like ambient scribe technology it’s important to have articles like this one. This is especially true when dealing with the two overarching concerns regards AI potentially replacing people in jobs and of AI inventing or hallucinating information.
Professional grade software using AI invariably has safeguards and human oversight throughout, but again it’s on providers like Access to sell our products highlighting these protection elements; framing the pitch around improved working practices and outcomes but also around elements like compliance, consent, and data security.
There’s also the issue for local authorities regarding integration. Many councils and government bodies have existing case management systems and other software in their setup. They need reassurance that any new solution will do what it promises, and this is where trials and evidence are very helpful towards both the sales pitch but also the broader issue of swaying people towards AI, not scaring them away from it.
Access Notes Centre
This brings us nicely to our local authority software solution – Access NotesCentre.
In our own words, "Access NotesCentre is our cutting edge, AI-powered dictation solution, designed to significantly reduce the time health and social workers spend manually typing documentations and case notes."
What NotesCentre does
Access NotesCentre is a scribing solution, using an AI algorithm to recognise speech from audio and to accurately document the words being said. It is intelligent enough to identify multiple different speakers and their language and present this in text form – boasting up to 80% time reduction for handwritten notation work.
In the case of our customers, carers are able to dictate their notes directly into the system, reducing time they’d usually spend typing notes up. With smart prompts and templates, they’re guided on how to be compliant with the law and other best-practice guidelines.
Reliability
NotesCentre uses a secure, internal, private version of ChatGPT – in combination with Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services – for accuracy of data capture and management. The software also works with several other Access solutions beyond Mosaic, meaning information can flow across care planning, compliance, and rostering systems.
Security First
Not only does Access use a private version of ChatGPT as our LLM, we also operate exclusively within UK data centres, meaning we abide by UK legislation regards data protection, privacy and security. This means that sensitive data never enters public AI systems.
Access also has ISO 27001 certification for NotesCentre, as well as bank-level encryption of its coding and role-based access controls to ensure accountability and an audit trail.
Easy to Use
Aside the simple-to-use recording functionality for dictating notes, Access NotesCentre offers customisable, pre-configured templates based on the needs of your organisation and the repetitive elements of form filling that will be encountered.
There is also a dedicated mobile app on both Android and iOS depending on what type of smartphone a user has for working in the community.
Looking to the future
Access Evo is our next step in software development, using AI to integrate all of our solutions to allow the very best level of integration and data communication, without creating security risks.
NotesCentre will connect to this Evo platform and allow social care teams to push their productivity further than AI dictation and basic form filling. It will allow the generation of data insights and forecasts, which could potentially help clients act in a preventative manner before problems arise.
Start Small, Think Big
Ambient scribe technology is an enabler of workers, not a replacement for them. By alleviating a degree of the workload burden and removing the most repetitive and time-consuming elements, software like Access NotesCentre is able to provide a practical step towards more sustainable public services; a scenario where turnover is far lower and job satisfaction is far higher.
The future of AI‑supported local government work is close at hand, but it’s on local authorities and solutions providers to work in tandem to deliver practical solutions that staff can get the most out of, with as little risk as possible. By understanding their wants and needs, providers can model software accordingly.
The Access Evo Productivity Suite is one such example of practicality. It sits above NotesCentre and connects it with Access Messenger (encrypted messaging), as well as quick actions and panels for tasks and workflows, an AI assistant for queries within the Access system, and alerts to flag priority tasks or duties. Using this alongside NotesCentre would be single sign-on, with no new procurement and no new DPIA required, but it would also optimise working habits. Our logic is that if we can simplify the note taking, why not simplify the associated work too?
Even the smallest solutions can have a big impact though, and Ambient Scribe Technology is just that. A simple but practical task of accurately capturing the spoken word, with a knock-on effect that could completely transform frontline services through greater efficiency.
