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UK Council Turns a Veteran Employee Into an AI Chatbot
4 min read.
Midas AI
July 28, 2025
Peterborough City Council has turned its veteran care practitioner Geraldine Jinks into “Hey Geraldine”, an AI chatbot that empowers social care staff with decades of expertise and makes it available every hour of every day. This is a striking example of how to preserve institutional knowledge and scale impact without adding headcount.
From Human Expert to Digital Assistant
Geraldine has worked in local government for 35 years. Her deep knowledge of technology assisted care made her the trusted advisor for colleagues handling complex cases.
But her time was consumed by answering repetitive questions, pulling her away from work that required her judgment and experience.
Council leaders partnered with the companies Datnexa and Outcome Matters to encode Geraldine’s knowledge into a chatbot. Over three months she collaborated with developers to translate her familiar tone, detailed protocols, and practical guidance into a conversational tool. Feedback from staff shows some genuinely thought they were chatting with Geraldine herself.
The Real Impact
The AI assistant now handles most routine inquiries for the occupational therapy team. In a six week trial it completed 1 200 conversations, saving more than 300 hours of staff time. On average it cut 15 minutes off each query, giving staff more uninterrupted time for complex cases and strategic work. It has quickly built trust and familiarity by responding as Geraldine would, day or night.
Staff say the chatbot has raised confidence and provided instant access to trusted guidance. It is also part of the council’s wider effort to reduce hospital delays and increase resident independence through technology enabled care.
What It Shows for AI in Government
This project reframes AI as a way to scale knowledge, not just automate tasks. Instead of building a rigid system around static rules, the council captured the wisdom of an experienced practitioner and embedded it in a living service. It extends decades of expertise into an assistant that never needs leave or downtime. The next step will be to offer residents direct access through self service channels.
Why Founders and Builders Should Care
Public sector teams everywhere face resource constraints. If your product supports workflow, knowledge retrieval, or staff onboarding, this shows what transformation can look like: no extra developers, no static manuals, just an expert captured as an assistant.
Builders should think about how to preserve expert voice, maintain accountability, and evolve with user feedback while protecting transparency and compliance. If your product supports public services, elder care, or case management, expert agents like Hey Geraldine will become an expectation.
Your Playbook Now
Start by identifying high value team members whose knowledge is constantly requested. Map the most frequent questions and workflows they support. Build a pilot assistant that can answer those questions with tone, context, and traceability.
Measure time saved and user satisfaction. Then refine the model and scale across other teams by allowing experts to train their own assistants. Always keep auditable logs, human oversight, and clear accountability in place.
This is not just another chatbot. It is a way to capture living knowledge and deliver it to those who need it most.