The board of North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) has shared details of work to improve efficiency, reduce running costs, and eliminate non-value adding tasks with the use of digital tools and AI.
Mobilising AI solutions to free-up time to care through a ten percent reduction in time spent on non-clinical activities year-on-year is noted, and increasing the use of digital skills by upskilling the workforce to reduce time spent on non-value adding tasks by five percent year-on-year.
Reporting on AI deliverables around infrastructure capability and deployment initiatives such as Copilot, machine learning, generative AI, Copilot Agents, automation and integration with Power Apps Solutions, and ambient voice technology, the trust notes engagement and uptake of tools has been “positive”. It adds: “There is some early evidence of a reduction in time spent on non-clinical activities from the use of CoPilot.” Copilot Chat is now reportedly available to all staff, and user satisfaction is said to be high, with North London pointing to the waiting list for licences as reflecting “strong demand”.
Looking to generative AI, the trust shares details of two current use cases. The first of these is Retrieval Augmented Generation Architecture, which combines search tools with generative AI to surface information from the organisation’s own data sources, and then uses a large language model to generate an answer based on retrieved content. The second is in clinical notes summarisation, taking details from the EPR and summarising patient clinical history. “Combined, these aim to improve the accuracy, safety, and usefulness of clinical summarisation within NHS workflows, reducing clinical administrative burden,” North London explains. A business case is currently in development for AVT with the aim of deploying in 2026/27.
13 Power Apps are currently live across the trust, with 117 unique users accessing 12 apps a total of 825 times in a 28-day period. “Ligature Risk Management remains the most frequently used application, indicating strong adoption where tools directly support patient safety and frontline workflows,” the board observes.
Advanced data analytics capabilities have offered the forensic community mental health service an improved understanding of patient flow and factors contributing to extended hospital stays, NLFT shares. Structured analytical methods and visual reporting are supporting the shift to proactive operational management, and a series of dashboards have been developed to support data-driven insights, enable early discharge planning, and improve service transitions.
Highlighting progress on upskilling the workforce in digital and AI, NLFT outlines aims to enrol “at least 10 percent” of staff in funded apprenticeships with the Digital, Data, and AI Academy. Enrolment currently stands at two percent, figures show, with the trust adding that the estimated trajectory suggests by the end of 2026 this will reach six percent.
Wider trend: AI
HTN was joined by a panel including Ciara Moore, EPR operations director at Bath, Salisbury and Great Western Group, Stuart Cooney, CTO at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, and Julian Wiggins, healthcare solution director at Rackspace Technology, for a discussion focusing on cloud adoption, AI maturity, and cyber resilience. Panellists explored how healthcare organisations are tackling delivery, legacy systems, and rising digital expectations, and what this means for future strategy and plans. We also looked at the fragmented cloud landscape, integration pressures, legacy infrastructure, AI, and the growing urgency around cyber resilience, finishing by asking where NHS leaders should prioritise investment and focus in 2026.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) is to launch the next phase of its AI collaboration with Microsoft, looking to increase access for colleagues to Copilot and establish an MFT “Agent Factory” to support teams in designing and implementing AI tools to automate routine operational tasks. The trust has already rolled out Dragon Copilot Ambient Voice Technology and 1,500 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences across a range of roles. Over the next three years, an additional 6,500 Copilot licences will be granted to MFT per year, reportedly enabling access for all corporate staff, and 1,600 frontline colleagues. Alongside this, the trust plans to invest in training and development to promote colleague confidence in the use of AI.
A study exploring informed consent for ambient documentation using generative AI in outpatient care has highlighted nuances including that patients are more likely to self-censor when talking about mental and sexual health or illicit activity during consultations. The study, published in Jama Network Open, was conducted from March to December 2024 in ambulatory practices across specialities in a “large urban academic health centre”, involving 18 clinicians and 103 patients in an operational proof-of-concept.
