Scotland is outperforming most of the UK when it comes to AI readiness among local authorities according to recently-published research findings.
Analysis by experts from Heriot-Watt university in Edinburgh – in a joint study conducted with AI insights specialists GoLLM -shows that councils in Scotland have a stronger data maturity baseline when compared to other regions within the UK.
The report, AI Readiness of UK Local Authorities 2025, shows that sustainable progress was observed across three metrics – data maturity, AI maturity and AI culture – with ‘strong data leadership’ exhibited across central and local government.
According to the document, released in late December, Scotland councils appear to be more balanced when it comes to being AI-ready, with the report noting: Sustainable progress was observed across all three metrics, underpinned by a unified national ecosystem, mandated benchmarking and shared capability models.
It notes: “The Scottish Government and COSLA’s central leadership enabled councils to adopt common standards, access shared infrastructure and pooled expertise, directly influencing councils’ data systems and emerging technology maturity, reducing the risk of fragmentation, and empowering councils to thrive collectively rather than operating in silos.”
The document points to solid maturity across levels 2 to 4, but no councils have reached level 5 in data, AI, or AI culture. ‘However, its coherent national strategy and strong central digital governance create consistency, the report notes.
In terms of data maturity, Scotland’s councils are pioneering their way with a stronger data baseline when compared to other regions within the UK. With 40% of scaling data infrastructure at Level 4 with 31.2% at Level 3, it has a structured data system in place with an agenda of making it more efficient.
Key drivers include strong data leadership supported by the LGDP and the Scottish Government’s Data Maturity Programme, facilitated by the Digital Office, which enhances data governance, drives improvement plans, and fosters a data-driven culture across more than 40 organisations.
Joint digital efforts by COSLA, the Improvement Service, and the Digital Partnership Board support authorities in tackling legacy systems and developing common, interoperable data standards, the report notes.
‘The presence of 70% councils at level 3-4 alone implies that Scotland has successfully conformed to the fundamental conditions required to reach an operational data maturity.’
While AI adoption was said to be ‘widely distributed’ – with 31% of councils in Scotland embarking on ‘early pilots and experimentation’ – there are issues around scaling.
The report notes: ‘Councils lack expertise and incur high costs in this journey towards complete AI adoption, and the impact of this lag is significantly sharper for smaller councils.’
‘Scotland’s aligned digital ecosystem places councils in a strong position for the future, but sustained investment in capability and structured operational models will be required to unlock enterprise-level AI maturity across all its local authorities.’
AI culture is progressing, the report notes, but remains uneven, with most councils sitting at Levels 2–3 as they ‘shift from a mainly top-down approach to staff-driven engagement’.
‘Strong cross-council collaboration and visible leadership support have enabled a few councils, such as Falkirk, Orkney and North Lanarkshire, to reach Level 4, demonstrating more mature experimentation and active staff participation.’
While digital literacy and AI training gaps were highlighted, the report noted some use cases among Scottish local authorities leading on AI deployment. Fife Council was mentioned for its use of an AI-powered installation for sorting household waste, with a similar use case at Glasgow City Council which is deploying robotic sorters and optical sorting technology to maximise recovery and purity of recyclables.
Aberdeen City Council has taken a different route towards using AI and has done so within its internal administration services, the report notes. It has pioneered the AB-1 chatbot, which uses Microsoft LUIS to answer complex resident queries 24/7, with multilingual capabilities including local dialects and several community languages.
Going forward, Scotland could further leverage its established national programs by encouraging further use of innovation hubs like the Scottish AI Alliance, public/academia funding and collaborations, and resources such as the Digital Office.
Read the full report here.
