Northcott to explore AI summarisation

Northcott is looking to use AI to summarise information in customer files and to improve accessibility and support for both staff and customers.

Tara Ozturk, operational development manager at Northcott

The disability services provider's operational development manager Tara Ozturk told an Agentforce Summit in Sydney that AI presented exciting opportunities for the organisation.

Northcott provides support to adults and children with a disability, offers allied health legal services and runs programs to help people get ready for work in addition to in-home support.

Ozturk said staff are required to “manage a lot of information about the customers that they support”.

“They often have to do that by reading through documentation attached to their files," Ozturk said.

"When we started to talk about what the possibilities with AI were, that summarisation capability to be able to help people to get the information they need at the time that they need, that’s something that we are very excited about.”

The organisation has set up a branch called Northcott Innovation (NI) to aid a rethink of “how things are” run.

This has already led to Nest, a web-based service that matches people with disabilities to suitable housing options.

“That's how accessibility comes into play in terms of innovation," Ozturk said.

Innovation around accessibility is also impacting how Northcott engages with customers with diverse needs.

Customers are able to participate in the co-design of services that are important to them, Ozturk said.

“We will have the ability to work with customers, to be able to know what information can we extract, how can we make things easier for you to see what your available budgets are or how your progress is going with your goals.”

Ozturk said the organisation has also established a new product team comprised of people to focus on the type of contact customers prefer to have with Northcott.

AI would be used to augment this contact model, making it “easier and simpler for staff to do their job”, while allowing customers to get access to real-time information and customisation that is “unique to them”.

Ozturk said that some internal skills development would occur as the program progressed, particularly around data literacy and quality.