Scotland's public sector is ready for the AI Challenge - and the webinars proved it

The breadth of attendance told its own story. Participants joined from local government, health boards, central government, regulators, education bodies and a range of other public service providers - organisations facing different pressures but exploring remarkably similar questions about how AI can help them do more with what they have. That convergence of interest, from so many different corners of Scotland's public sector, is exactly the kind of momentum the Challenge was designed to build.

The sessions explored the purpose of the Challenge, how to develop a strong use case, what the judging criteria are looking for, and how organisations can prepare a submission that stands out. A consistent theme throughout was that AI's greatest near-term value in public services lies in automating tasks, not jobs - releasing skilled people from repetitive, time-consuming work so they can focus on what only they can do. Previous Challenge participants have demonstrated this in practice: VisitScotland used it to improve personalised visitor recommendations, NHS Grampian explored an AI-powered triage tool to speed up colorectal cancer referrals, and Dumfries and Galloway Council developed a solution to reduce manual workloads in revenues and benefits. The potential is real, and it is already being realised.

One of the clearest messages across all three sessions was that you do not need a finished solution to apply. The Challenge is designed precisely to take a promising idea and help you develop it into a practical proof of concept. If you can identify a genuine problem, understand the process behind it, and describe the kind of impact you want to achieve, that is a strong starting point.

Thinking about your use case

If you are working on an application, the use case guidance on the Challenge website is worth reading carefully. It walks through how to frame a strong entry - starting with a clear problem, understanding the existing process, and then mapping tasks to AI components such as Classify, Summarise, Analyse, Generate, Prioritise and more. These pre-built components, drawn from Storm ID's agentic workflow engine, give applicants a practical vocabulary for describing how their idea would actually work. A good entry makes that connection explicit: here is the problem, here is the process, here is how AI addresses it, and here is how we would measure success.

The judging criteria reflect Scotland's AI Strategy and Storm ID's own research into public sector AI adoption. Entries are assessed on social impact, responsibility and ethics, scalability and reusability, innovation and applicability, feasibility and value for money, and sustainability. Strong entries do not need to excel on every dimension equally - but they should tell a coherent story about why this idea matters, how it could work, and what it could unlock.

Want to talk it through before you submit?

If you have an idea but are not sure how to shape it, or want a sounding board before you put pen to paper, get in touch by emailing ai@stormid.com. We are happy to have a conversation ahead of the deadline — sometimes all it takes is a short call to turn a rough concept into a submission worth making.

The deadline for entries is 17 June 2026. After that, shortlisted organisations will be supported through the proof of concept phase before the Challenge culminates at Digital Scotland 2026 in November, where shortlisted teams will present their work and an Audience Choice winner will be announced.

The level of interest this week has been genuinely exciting. Scotland's public sector is clearly ready to move beyond discussion and into action. If your organisation has a real problem that AI might help solve, now is the time.

Apply at aichallenge.scot