Acas: Human‑centred AI strategy in just five weeks

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) helps resolve workplace disputes for millions of workers across Britain. With Day One employment rights set to affect millions of workers and growing demand for employment support services, Acas faces pressure to scale service delivery whilst maintaining quality.

The organisation needed to understand how AI could meaningfully improve experiences whilst reducing pressure on services and the Employment Tribunal System. With manual processes and workarounds, legacy systems, and limited forecasting capability, Acas needed a strategic approach to transformation, rather than exploring individual AI solutions in isolation.

The challenge was compounded by a business case submission deadline: just five weeks to develop a compelling funding proposal and a strategy that could adapt to rapidly evolving AI capabilities.

What we did 

We formed one team with Acas’s core working group and worked extensively with stakeholders across the business. Through research, workshops and multiple discovery sessions, we identified transformation opportunities where emerging technologies could address pain-points for citizens and staff.

Our work focused on:

• Collaboration for a shared vision - Cross-functional workshops and 1-1 sessions gathered perspectives, aligned stakeholders and co-created opportunities to address real challenges rather than theoretical concepts.
• Outcome-focused opportunity identification - We identified 14 use cases - opportunity areas grounded in user outcomes rather than technology solutions, helping Acas take a people-first approach.
• Readiness assessment and roadmap - We evaluated current capabilities across technology, data, culture and governance, and developed a dynamic roadmap to support AI implementation.
• Evidence-based prioritisation - Multi-criteria decision analysis to plan implementation phases that balanced user and staff impact, technical feasibility and strategic value.
• Business case development - We developed four strategic transformation themes across a 5-year, two-phase roadmap with 14 specific use cases. This formed a strategic plan to support a funding proposal.

Strategic outcomes and impact

Our work delivered immediate impact for the team and a long-term, forward thinking approach to AI transformation.

• Critical deadline met - In just 5 weeks, a business case was successfully submitted, positioning Acas for transformation investment with significant potential to positively impact the wider economy.
• Organisational confidence - We built genuine enthusiasm for AI transformation within Acas, moving from uncertainty to strategic clarity about people-first approaches.
• Future-ready framework - The outcome-focused roadmap provides strategic direction whilst remaining flexible to technological change.

"It was an absolute pleasure working with Healthia. Their contribution not only ensured the project’s success but also demonstrated what excellent partnership truly looks like. For our project team, this has been the best experience we’ve had working with a consultancy. There was a laser focus on delivery, collaboration, and a genuine sense of one team. The project delivered exactly what we needed on a very tight timeline. We built genuine confidence and enthusiasm around AI transformation across the organisation while demonstrating the value of a user-centred approach."

- Kate McCaul, Head of Digital, Acas

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