UK public bodies face rising workload from AI-generated complaints

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AI-generated complaints surge in UK

Highlights

AI-generated correspondence now comprises about half of emails to some UK MPs’ offices, making messages longer, more formal, and harder to process in 2024-2025.
Employment tribunal claims in the UK rose 28% year on year to 14,000 single-claimant cases in April–June, with open single claims reaching 70,000 at June end.
Transport for London saw a record 4,769 FOI requests in 2025-26, 5% above the 2023-24 peak, with a noted surge in AI-generated appeals.

Growing volumes strain public administration

As first reported by The Guardian, staff across local authorities, MPs’ offices and legal teams say chatbot-generated correspondence has risen from a trickle in 2024 to a broad operational burden. Workers describe messages as longer, more formal and often harder to interpret, even when the underlying request is simple.

Hollie Wickens, a senior caseworker in a Labour MP’s office, says about half of the emails her office receives are now generated in some form by AI, making them more time-consuming to read and process. Deborah Evans, chief executive of Lawyers in Local Government, says councils are seeing the same pattern across complaints tied to social care, bin collections and planning objections, with many submissions far longer than before widespread chatbot use.

The Information Commissioner’s Office says many public authorities received more requests in 2025 and notes that AI-generated submissions can be repetitive, broad in scope and difficult to parse. Evans says complaints that once averaged about two pages are now often 10 times longer, with some stretching to roughly 200 pages.

Costs rise as agencies weigh responses

Public bodies still need human review even when requests appear inaccurate or AI-drafted, adding to compliance and staffing costs. Evans says AI tools can introduce irrelevant legal references or invented claims, while still producing text that sounds authoritative enough to demand careful review.

Employment-related disputes are also adding to the burden. Jim Moore of Hamilton Nash says many employer complaints are entirely AI-generated or heavily shaped by chatbot wording, often verbose and intimidating in tone but unclear on the remedy being sought; government figures show employment tribunal claims opened between April and June rose 28% year on year to 14,000 single-claimant cases, while open single claims reached 70,000 at the end of June.

Transport for London received a record 4,769 freedom of information requests in 2025-26, 5% above the previous peak in 2023-24, and its audit committee noted a rise in appeals that appeared to be AI-generated. MPs’ offices are also reporting mounting strain, with GMB saying casework has doubled or more in some offices, while councils including Wiltshire and Stroud are exploring AI tools to summarise long emails or support drafting, even as officials warn against losing human oversight.

Our earlier article on KPMG’s CEO survey examined how large U.S. companies are seeing early efficiency and growth gains from AI agents, but only a small share view them as truly transformational so far. It also highlighted that many executives expect AI to drive continued hiring, retraining, and sustained investment in AI infrastructure as firms adapt processes and build human-AI collaboration.

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