When Matt Radwell, a customer support officer for a small local authority in the UK, first started answering queries from the area’s residents, it was a frustrating and time-consuming business. If a resident contacted Aylesbury Vale District Council, 40 miles north of London, about an issue like housing benefit in which he lacked expertise, Mr Radwell might keep the caller waiting as long as 20 minutes. He had to find someone who could give him the relevant information.

Over the past two years, however, his job has been transformed. When a resident types a question into the council’s online chat facility, an advanced computer system starts reading it.

For around 40 per cent of inquiries, the system — which has been trained to recognise residents’ questions by using machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence — presents Mr Radwell and other customer support officers with a series of potential, pre-written responses. Each is labelled with an estimated probability of its being the correct choice. If one is appropriate, Mr Radwell clicks on it, satisfying the resident far more quickly and easily than before.