Improving the Governmental Financial Resilience Toolkit through AI

The project “Improving the user experience on the online toolkit for building capacities for local governments’ financial resilience” received funding from the University of Essex Impact Accelerator Fund. The funded work will build on previous research, practitioner engagement and case studies with local authorities.

The award will support the next stage of development of the Governmental Financial Resilience Toolkit, through the development of AI-assisted features to improve the Toolkit’s user experience. These features will allow local authority practitioners to ask questions about their results in plain language and receive clear, accessible responses and visual outputs. This will make it easier for councils to explore their data, interpret findings, identify areas of strength and vulnerability, and use the results to support reflection, planning and decision-making.

The project is particularly timely as councils continue to face financial uncertainty, rising service pressures and organisational change. By using AI to support analysis and interpretation, the enhanced Toolkit aims to reduce the time and effort required to understand results, while helping practitioners turn evidence into practical conversations and follow-up actions.

The award represents an important step in translating academic research on local government financial resilience into an accessible, AI-enhanced and practice-oriented resource for local government.