AI Strategy for Social Housing: A No-Nonsense Beginner’s Guide

Currently, AI presents a range of benefits to organisations of all kinds; from transforming workflows, to data crunching, to simply saving time and effort.

Yet, at present, AI is also a much-hyped and misunderstood field.

There’s a lot of noise - not least in the social housing space - about individual, tactical AI applications like virtual agents, data crunching, and workflow automation. All of these examples can absolutely help housing providers of all kinds.

However, overarching tech adoption strategy trumps piecemeal, patchwork tech implementation every time. So, before you go any further on your AI journey, you will most likely benefit from creating a well-thought-out and documented   AI strategy for your organisation.

What is an AI Strategy?

IBM defines an AI strategy as follows:   

“An artificial intelligence strategy is simply a plan for integrating AI into an organization [sic] so that it aligns with and supports the broader goals of the business.”

Creating an AI strategy isn’t necessarily an exercise in finessing your AI implementation “shopping list,” it’s far more foundational than that.

It’s about diving into the business’s strategy, mission, values, and priorities, and creating a practical roadmap for AI adoption that aligns with these fundamental objectives. The aim of an AI strategy is to serve as a clear “guiding star” for AI initiatives.

So here are our 5 suggested steps to creating a meaningful AI strategy.

A Simple Guide to Approaching AI Strategy for Social Housing Providers

1. Start demystifying AI for your organisation

When it comes to any kind of emerging tech, it pays to know about the Gartner Hype Cycle. This cycle communicates the different phases of hype that a new technology goes through before it reaches mature, widespread use.

When it comes to AI, we are very much in the phase called “the Peak of Inflated Expectations,” where enthusiasm - and unrealistic assumptions - are at an all-time high.

Our Chief Data Officer, Ian Bobbett, shared this down-to-earth definition of AI technology in a recent episode of our Digital Louge podcast

“At a really simple level, AI is a type of software that intelligently carries out a specific set of tasks. It learns from its inputs and adapts to generate different outputs.”

So, with that hype-free definition in mind, let’s very briefly explore some practical AI use cases which might be of particular interest to housing providers:

• Generating textual summaries of a large amount of data. This may be useful for creating case summaries for customer-facing teams when dealing with an ongoing issue.
• Running generative “virtual agents.” Chatbot-like functionality which can independently handle straightforward customer interactions, freeing up staff to focus on more complex or high-value problems.
• Digesting and categorising data at speed and scale. Could be used to merge disparate customer and property data into a centralised data “warehouse;” or to get a complaint to the right team in real time.
• Automating workflows that require complex logic. Automatically progressing workflows that require more nuanced logic than the simple “if this, then that” instructions of more conventional computing.
• Collating information into clean, comprehensible data. AI is excellent at taking numerous disparate data points, spotting subtle trends, and combining that information into meaningful reports.
• Machine vision to automate scanning and analysis of properties. AI can analyse footage taken of a property to automatically identify issues, reducing manual effort and supporting baseline safety compliance.
• Carrying out predictive analysis from past data. Covers numerous use cases, including predicting presence and prevalence of certain disrepair issues or identifying customers at risk of rent arrears, enabling early support and intervention.

These are just a few practical examples, of course, but with these in mind, our first step on the AI strategy ladder is to explore AI’s capabilities and   ask: What could AI truly mean for our organisation? What problems do we have that current AI tech could help solve? How could AI make life better for our staff and for our customers?

2. Start your AI strategy fact-finding mission

Any meaningful business strategy starts with a bit of detective work.

Sit down with key stakeholders throughout the business and get a frank assessment of what metrics or workflows need to be improved. What business problems desperately need to be solved? Do   you have any non-AI tech issues that need to be addressed before going any further? What are the capabilities of your internal IT teams - will they be able to support your AI transformation?

Also consider your operational teams; are they particularly receptive or resistant to change? What is their attitude towards AI - do they feel threatened by it? What problems are currently causing them the most headaches in their work?

What do your current tenant satisfaction metrics look like? Are your customers satisfied with you as a provider? What would your customers like to see you do differently?

Armed with this fresh insight, you can start to pull together a loose AI strategy - and even a few practical business cases - that will serve to guide you on your journey to AI adoption.

3. Get to grips with your data

The social housing sector is famously data rich, yet insight poor. The Housing Ombudsman’s KIM report lays bare many of the sector’s information management and record keeping failings.

Shockingly, in the year prior to the report, the Ombudsman reported that two thirds of their maladministration findings “had information failings at their heart,” and that 88% of landlord complaints-handlers reported that “poor information undermines their response.”

In order to benefit from many of AI’s business-forward use cases, you need to have the most accurate, complete, and up to date information about properties, customers, and your business as a whole. After all, not even AI can make a complete assessment of a situation with incomplete data.

So, the next step on your strategic AI ladder should be a frank, warts-and-all assessment of the data under your care. Inspired by a few of the situations flagged by the KIM report, here are a few thought starters:

• Where is your data stored? Do you have a central, immutable record of all business data? Or is your data fractured across different files, devices, and networks?
• How is new data captured and recorded by customer-facing teams? Do critical property and customer details ever languish in scattered spreadsheets or paper systems, outside of central IT purview?
• Can you identify any common gaps in your data? What can you do to best identify and fill information gaps? What is the overall quality of the data you hold? How fit for purpose is it?
• Can you see any opportunities to connect and triangulate data for best effect? What data points can be analysed together to create the most informed decisions about an issue?
• How is your data backed up? If a catastrophic IT failure were to occur, would your business-critical customer and property data be retrievable?
• How do you secure your data? How do you defend your data against potential breach, exposure, or cyber-attack? How do you manage your data in line with regulatory requirements like UK GDPR?
• Who is ultimately accountable for data security, quality, completeness, and compliance in each area of the business?

Simply overhauling your data management practices can present a wealth of benefits in and of itself but also sets you on the best path to meaningful AI adoption.

4. Consider how AI can help you further human connections

People need people. Always have, always will. And despite the hype-tinged murmurings about applications like “AI robot housing officers” and the like, social housing will always need a human face.

In our opinion, a healthy approach to AI involves enhancing, supporting, and augmenting human workflows, not replacing your human workforce.

We’ve already touched upon a few examples of this, where unattended support channels enable customer-facing teams to focus on urgent or complex cases; or predictive analysis flagging a need for human intervention or support.

AI can even be used to flag gaps in critical data that can help you provide well-targeted support, such as critical information about the health and disability status of your customers and their dependents.

Automation can present real human benefits too. The 24/7 availability of virtual agents can help customers who work unusual hours and may not be able to call during the usual 9-5. Automation can also be used to translate virtual agents and online customer portals into various languages on the fly, overcoming language barriers for non-English speaking customers.

Related Reading: How Contact Centre Tech Enables Human-Centred Housing

5. Don’t forget change management fundamentals!

When embarking upon any kind of business change, it’s important to bring your people along with you for the journey. After all, change can be hard, especially for those who feel they have no agency within or control over that situation.

We’ve discussed change management fundamentals before on the blog, but here are a few quick takeaways:

• Identify the pros and cons of the change and conduct an exhaustive impact analysis.
• Bolster your business case with a clear vision statement that clarifies the value of the change to all parties.
• Continually communicate progress to all stakeholders and provide reassurance about any uncertainty.
• Expect resistance at all stages of the project and engage with those who express productive concerns.
• Recognise that previous change projects may still affect some parties and seek to mitigate any issues.
• Celebrate milestones and successes incrementally to show gratitude to everyone involved.
• Establish clear ownership and accountability for elements of the project

Get Expert AI Strategists in Your Corner

Ready to start your AI journey towards operational and service excellence? With years of embedded experience in leading technical transformation projects for the social housing sector, Crimson’s AI transformation team has a variety of options for you to tap into their expertise.

We provide a number of AI consultancy services for housing associations just like yours, available at various levels of cost and involvement. So however you want to embrace AI, we’re here to help you get it right. Book an obligation-free consultation to see if working with Crimson is right for you.

So, take the first step towards AI transformation. Housing providers big and small - just book a call!