Scotland’s public sector AI Challenge opens today (May 8) – with organisations urged to embrace the technology as a way of investing in their future.
The second annual edition of the competition – conceived by Futurescot in association with Edinburgh digital transformation partner Storm ID – is now officially open for applications.
The Challenge – which had over 40 applicants last year – is a chance for public sector bodies in Scotland to explore AI, and work towards a proof of concept (POC).
For those considering taking their first steps with the technology, two of the finalists from last year said the experience was a rewarding one.
Bill Ward, head of broadcasting at the Scottish Parliament, made it to the final three last year after developing a use case for AI to transform the way citizens engage with its live webstreams.
In a new promotional video for the Futurescot AI Challenge 2025, he said: “It’s been a really great opportunity to actually have a real-world example of how we could use AI for delivering a better public service, and how we can enhance our public services. It’s allowed us to work collaboratively across teams and think how this can be scaled up and understand its full potential.”
He added: “And it’s actually been very useful to dive down into the ethical issues, which are complex in public sector organisations. That’s been a really valuable experience.”
Developing a proof of concept enabled Bill to share it with colleagues and wider teams across the organisation – where it became a useful stakeholder tool.
He said: “Don’t see it as a competition – what it is is a really good way to invest in the organisation’s future, and how you can harness this hugely useful tool for developing services that are useful in the public sector.”
The National Library of Scotland was a fellow finalist from 2025. It developed a use case using AI to help audiences discover and connect with Scotland’s rich audio-visual heritage.
Rob Cawston, director of digital and service transformation, National Library of Scotland, said: “Taking part in the AI Challenge was really interesting for the National Library of Scotland. I think partly because we have been thinking about AI for a while, and we’ve done various research projects involving different automation tools and AI technology.
“But this was a chance to bring people from across the organisation together to really think about not how can we use AI, but which challenges can we use AI to help us in our daily work and the things we are trying to do together as a library.”
He added: “The proof of concept process was really helpful for us. Sometimes it’s hard to unpack what we mean when we say AI; it’s such a broad term and there’s lots of hype at the moment. But actually seeing and stepping through a process where you can apply specific tools to a specific challenge – and seeing that presented back to you – was super helpful for the team involved in the moving image archive.”
“They could actually unpack the difficulties and the challenges and the ethical questions that would lie behind the use of some of those AI tools, as well as seeing those visual demonstrations of what that could look like for our end users.”
Cawston encouraged other public sector organisations to apply.
He said: “I would definitely encourage them to do so. This is an opportunity to really think with your own organisations and your own teams, again not about what should we do with AI, but what are the challenges that we have that we could really unpack and explore in a really safe space.”
The AI Challenge opens on Thursday, May 8 at Futurescot’s Transforming Public Services conference at Strathclyde University’s Technology & Innovation Centre in Glasgow.
Appearing in the AI leadership session will be Storm ID’s chief executive, Paul McGinness, along with David Hamilton, Scottish Information Commissioner, Isobel Houston, AI policy lead, digital health & care, Scottish Government and Keith Dargie, head of business services and chief information and digital officer, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
To enter the Futurescot AI Challenge 2025 visit here.
