Lorna’s Journey to AI Success at Police Scotland

Discover how Lorna Allison, E-Recruitment Systems Manager at Police Scotland, led a transformative journey to implement an AI-powered chatbot, revolutionizing the recruitment process for one of the UK’s largest police forces.

The Challenge

With over 22,000 staff and officers, Police Scotland’s recruitment team was overwhelmed by repetitive administrative tasks and a high volume of routine candidate inquiries. This not only drained valuable recruiter time but also limited their ability to focus on attracting top talent and delivering a modern candidate experience.

The Journey

Lorna championed the introduction of an AI chatbot to tackle these challenges. Her approach included:

• Building a strong business case focused on efficiency, cost savings, and improved candidate experience.
• Framing the chatbot as an enabler, not a replacement, to address concerns about job security.
• Engaging stakeholders early through clear communication, live demonstrations, and hands-on testing.
• Establishing a cross-functional working group to guide design and implementation.
• Conducting robust data protection and cybersecurity assessments to ensure compliance and trust.

The Solution & Impact

The new chatbot now handles common candidate questions 24/7, freeing recruiters from repetitive admin and making information more accessible to applicants. Since launch, Police Scotland has seen:

• 30% fewer routine inquiries to recruitment mailboxes
• Over 37 hours saved in answering common questions
• A 92% candidate satisfaction rating

Lorna’s journey shows that with the right strategy, innovation can be quick, cost-effective, and deliver real impact—empowering teams to focus on what matters most.

"It’s been a really important step for us in Police Scotland, in terms of aligning with our digital transformation, building a policing service for the future, and that’s what we want to continue with. Our project showed us that innovation doesn’t have to be slow and it doesn’t have to be expensive—because with the right approach, it’s possible to deliver a smart, modern solution very quickly and efficiently, and with impact that far outweighs the investment. For a very small amount of investment, we managed to implement something very quickly and from project start to implementation was just eight weeks for us, which was quite remarkable in our terms and in our history.” - Lorna Allison - Police Scotland