Agilisys and public sector colleagues in a session on AI in public services

FOI Agent

AI that helps your team answer Freedom of Information requests faster: requesters find answers themselves, officers get a drafted, exemption-checked response ready to review. Built inside a public sector FOI team, running in your own Microsoft 365.

See what you could save

The problem the FOI Agent solves

Public bodies receive thousands of Freedom of Information requests a year, each carrying a 20-working-day statutory deadline. Whether you are a council, an NHS trust, a police force, a university or a central government department, every request means finding the right information across several systems, checking exemptions, and drafting a response that holds up.

Most teams do all of this by hand, and the ICO is placing more weight on timeliness. UCL research puts the average request at 7.5 hours of officer time, roughly £187.50 at the statutory £25 an hour rate and closer to £250 to £300 at real staff cost.

FOI Agent gives that time back. It handles the triage and the first draft so officers spend their time on the judgement calls, not the assembly.

20 working days

Statutory deadline on every request

7.5 hrs

Average officer time a request, UCL research

£250 to £300

Real staff cost of handling one request

How it works: two agents

For requesters

A front end that answers before it becomes casework

A requester-facing agent sits in your digital front end. It helps people search the disclosure log, check whether a similar request has already been answered, and submit a new one directly. The repeats and already-answered questions are met before they become casework.

For officers

Officers start from a draft

A staff-facing agent helps your team progress each request: managing workflow steps, flagging exemptions for review, accelerating escalations, and preparing a drafted response. Officers review and approve rather than starting from scratch. It picks up every request whether it arrives through the front-end agent or by email, which is still how most requests come in.

Both are configured against your own digital channels, disclosure log, workflow and supporting systems, so the product fits your operating model rather than forcing a new one. It is a configurable product, not a bespoke build: a typical deployment runs 6 to 10 weeks, and the lowest-risk start is a scoped pilot on a sample of your live FOI backlog.

Measured results

Tested against real FOI cases

An efficiency assessment run on a sample of representative FOI cases, comparing the current process with the AI-assisted approach. The figures are verified by an information governance team using our product.

53%

Reduction in overall processing effort

42%

Less effort on the average FOI case

69%

Faster to process a new request

186 hrs

Officer capacity released a year, about 15.46 hours a month

Behind those headlines, monthly processing effort dropped from 28.93 to 13.47 hours, clarification handling fell 74%, and reminder administration fell 63%.

This is not about surplus headcount. FOI volumes keep rising and requests are getting more complex, helped by AI making them easier to submit. The gain is that a team can absorb that growing demand without adding resource, while officers keep human oversight of every response and exemption.

See both sides in action

Two interactive demos on sample data: the requester front end, then the officer back end with the walkthrough pointing out each step. Around 5 minutes each, at your own pace.

Built to be defensible

The questions that decide an FOI AI purchase are about control, not speed: where the data sits, what human review wraps the model, whether every output is traceable.

FOI Agent runs within your existing Microsoft 365 tenant, with your existing case management system or disclosure log staying as the source of truth. That means:

✓No migration and no second system to keep in step.It works with the case management and disclosure log your team already runs.
✓Your data stays in your own tenant.No new supplier to assess, no new data flow to document.
✓A person owns every decision.Exemptions are surfaced for review, never applied automatically. Responses are drafted, not sent. The audit trail builds as the work happens, with every exemption, review and sign-off tied to a named officer.

What could it return for your organisation?

Two figures is all it takes. Set the requests you receive each year and how long one takes your team today.

Open the full calculator

A planning estimate on published benchmarks, not a quotation. Open the full calculator for the method behind it and a one-page benchmark report for your organisation, or speak to our team for figures built on your own officer costs and request mix.

Also available

EIR Agent

The same two-agent pattern covers Environmental Information Regulations. Because the disclosure log is often shared and the buying group is the same, most public bodies take the two together as FOI and EIR.

See the EIR Agent →

Start with an AI Prototyping Day

It takes a day. We bring the method, you bring your team and your data, and we run it against a real case from your own backlog rather than a hypothetical. You will leave knowing whether this is worth pursuing, with no commitment beyond the day.

AI Prototyping Days are free. We ask that your head of department sponsors the session and brings the people who can make decisions and make things happen.

Or email us directly: info@agilisys.co.uk