The local authority became the first in Scotland to implement artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology in its customer contact centre in November 2024.
However, it has not been universally popular amid complaints that it has caused confusion and even struggled with the local dialect in certain instances.
But the council has claimed the system is “reducing pressure” on its staff and offering residents a “faster route” to the information they need in a report to the leadership board on Wednesday.
It said: “The introduction of Millie, the council’s AI phone assistant, has resulted in significant improvements in customer service performance, channel shift, operational efficiency and citizen experience.
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“As of November 2025, across 380,606 AI-handled calls, Millie has accurately answered 134,777 questions, reducing pressure on customer service advisers and offering residents a faster route to information 24/7.
“One of the strongest indicators of AI success is the demonstration of a clear and sustained ability to autonomously resolve queries.
“When excluding auto-escalations, Millie has achieved 39.82% resolution rate, meaning four out of ten people receive everything they need through the AI without requiring a human adviser.”
The digital adviser enjoyed success in the leading innovation category at the COSLA Excellence Awards 2025 in November as well as elsewhere – acclaim that was also touched upon in the paper.
It added: “In recognition of this cutting-edge project, Millie and the customer services team were recognised at the COSLA Excellence Awards and more recently at the Holyrood Scottish Public Service Awards.
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“The team are currently working on validating an AI business case focused on opportunities to further deploy AI technologies across the organisation, including a roadmap for implementation.
“If this business case is approved, this will represent a significant programme of change over the next three years.”
Labour councillor Chris Gilmour recently poked fun at the technology at the finance, resources and customer services policy board in November.
“I’m a great believer in machine learning,” he said at the meeting. “I just think the machine needs to learn a bit quicker.
“I think AI is the way forward. I have nothing against AI, it just needs to be refined a bit more.
“I hope Millie takes its award, artificial intelligence-wise, and puts it on its artificial intelligence mantelpiece and learns from it.”
