Today, as AI becomes increasingly commonplace in Social Housing, we are seeing a surge in opportunities to improve operational performance – it’s clear that AI is here to stay…
As interest and adoption of AI continues to grow, it's crucial to consider how these technologies can be used ethically by teams, but also mitigate bias and protect tenant data. In this blog, we’ll explore practical ways to approach AI responsibly while embracing its potential to strengthen tenant relationships and improve operational outcomes. We will also share real-world case studies that demonstrate how our AI solutions are delivering impact for our social housing tenants every day.
Contents
- Challenges AI can solve in social housing
- Ethical considerations of AI
- Caseload Manager and Agreements Manager: The future of AI in social housing
- Discover our AI whitepaper for full insights
Challenges AI can solve in social housing
Certain challenges in social housing, such as agreement reminders, require manual admin to overcome, depleting human resources forcing officers to spend less time on cases, and leaving them feeling overwhelmed. However, AI presents the perfect opportunity to lend a hand in relieving team stress, increasing productivity and tenant-officer satisfaction.
AI, more broadly, can assist with challenges surrounding:
● Team collaboration● Service delivery
● Operational efficiency
● Tenant engagement
● Case visibility
● Data/reporting accuracy
With a holistic, strategic approach and ethical application, deploying AI can offer teams efficient solutions that align with their organisational values and allow them to learn more about the success of their operations. Whether that’s from high-quality insights, AI problem-solving or transformative approaches to communicating with your tenants, AI intelligent solutions are a great way to predict, monitor and channel repeated successes.
On top of this, AI can also assist with more complex challenges across the social housing sector, some of which we’ve identified as the key use-cases for our Voicescape Caseload Manager and Agreements Manager solutions , where it can help solve frequent challenges within your teams, such as …
→ Automation of interventions and targeted/scalable engagement
AI can maximise the impact of your resident engagement, and proactive engagement has proven to create a more positive tenant experience.
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How Caseload Manager presents tenant behaviour → ● Voicescape Caseload Manager can automate the relevant stages of the arrears management process. ● For Greatwell Homes, in their challenge to reduce letter costs, used our solution to help them review individual tenant behaviours and risks; thereby reducing letter costs with Caseload Manager as the next logical step in their plan. With the valuable data analytics it provided, they succeeded thanks to using our arrears management and engagement tool. Learn more about how Caseload Manager achieved this – Case study with Greatwell Homes |
→ Faster data auditing and analysis skills
AI analyses behaviours to identify risks early on. When overlaid with behavioural science, you not only get scalable engagement, but also insights into how to approach residents thoughtfully in a caring yet professional manner.
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How Caseload Manager presents data → ● Caseload Manager utilises AI, machine-learning (ML) and data processing to continually assess, refresh and daily process the latest information on customer payments. ● For our customer, Greatwell Homes, this high-quality data allowed them to address the challenge of Universal Credit payments and use Caseload Manager to automate relevant communications within the system, to streamline customer engagement in a timely and relevant way. Learn more about how Caseload Manager achieved this – Case study with Greatwell Homes |
→ Streamlining work processes for teams
Which automates low-value manual tasks, and in turn frees up overstretched teams, boosts morale and, importantly, allows for more high-value and impactful interactions with tenants that drive positive outcomes.
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How Caseload Manager quickly identifies high-risk cases → ● For our customer, Stonewater, they used Caseload Manager’s AI to assess, analyse and identify high-risk cases in order to highlight more pressing cases to their income officers to direct attention to. As part of this, our AI solution segmented cases into sections on what the next action for each case was required. This is Caseload Manager’s main functionality and usage for all customers. ● Thanks to the solution, Stonewater’s officers now manage around 115 cases each, a 71% reduction in workload from a previous 400, making caseloads more manageable, enabling teams to process cases faster and more efficiently. Learn more about how Caseload Manager achieved this – Case study with Stonewater |
→ AI solutions provide greater clarity on resident interactions across your portfolio
This is especially true when it comes to reporting and having full visibility on engagement attempts with residents.
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How Agreements Manager helps with enhancing resident engagement → ● Powered by behavioural science, Voicescape Agreements Manager enhances resident engagement by improving how repayment agreements are set, communicated and managed. ● Our customer, Onward Homes, has been an early adopter of Agreements Manager and has been impressed by the initial impact it’s had on teams...
Learn more about Agreements Manager from our blog – Webinar with Onward Homes |
Ethical considerations of AI
AI in both daily life and social housing is useful when used ethically and to the highest standards, with regard to…
✅ Transparency – Organisations should show accountability and allow a test-and-learn culture; where teams are comfortable experimenting with various tools, within preset ethical guidelines. However, this approach should come with a framework or explicit guidance on how to do this safely.
✅ Privacy and data protection for tenants – Carefully handling personal information for tenants involves ethical consideration of tenants’ data, including: data privacy, GDPR compliance (see Voicescape’s Privacy Policy) and regulatory compliance for the responsible use of machine learning models. Additionally, you should only use the data you need to use for the necessary purpose. Sometimes, there are tendencies in AI, and elsewhere, to collect lots of data “in case it’s useful” rather than just the data needed to process for the outcome.
✅ Having the right data ready for AI – increases your chances of success before implementation. This enables AI solutions to have the best foundations to work on as you integrate systems.
✅ Mitigating bias – it’s vital to recognise the individuality of each of your tenants and how each of their circumstances impacts their case. Therefore, to consider tenant complexities, we always have human oversight on recommendations to override a decision made by AI, if needed, so the system can learn more. This is because our AI models are designed to improve continually to reflect the complexities of people’s lives, making AI recommendations smarter, personal and more accurate for tenants.
✅ Meeting compliance standards — it’s vital to meet compliance regulations; housing teams must consider any ethical implications of using AI before implementation. This includes considering relevant laws, such as the Data Protection Act, the Human Rights Act, the Statistics and Registration Service Act and codes of practice concerning the use of data. Consent and legitimacy are vital when it comes to ethics and the law.
Caseload Manager and Agreements Manager: The future of AI in social housing
Nowadays, with macro trends like the Cost of Living Crisis, housing problems have been exacerbated. Housing providers need new solutions to solve growing challenges, and this is particularly true for social housing providers today looking for answers with AI.
Paired with Voicescape’s intelligent AI and ML solutions, Caseload Manager (for caseload management) and Agreements Manager (for tenant repayment agreements), you too can tackle the challenges social housing providers face with ease – from mass analysis of tenant behaviour and high-risk case identification, to streamlining work processes for greater team efficiency.
Voicescape can help your team with the ethics of implementing AI solutions, such as facilitating transparency and enhancing core business functions (like income management and revenue generation) by using algorithms to analyse tenant payment patterns and predict future behaviours. Through intelligent technology, our AI solutions can recommend the best time engagement actions for your residents.
Whilst there is always a risk of human oversight, having the best, intelligent solutions in your operations already helps mitigate that risk. And, most importantly, Voicescape ensure data security so you can use AI ethically in social housing and ensure compliance, as well as maximum efficiency.
Discover our AI whitepaper for full insights
Read more about our AI solutions for the social housing sector and claim your copy of our latest AI whitepaper: “Embracing AI in Social Housing.” In this exclusive piece, you can read expert insights from the sector and the frameworks for success when it comes to the integration and ethical application of AI. We also have a quick guide covering unmissable insights on our blog.