DWP goes shopping for AI to handle benefit calls

The UK government’s Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) is pressing ahead with plans to bring conversational AI into its vast call-handling operation, launching a new procurement worth up to £23.4 million

A notice published on the government’s Find a Tender service sets out DWP’s search for a conversational AI platform (CaiP) that can understand callers’ natural speech and route them to the right service, or deal with the query automatically where possible.

The DWP is the UK’s biggest public service department, managing the State Pension and working age and disability benefits for around 20 million citizens. Calls are currently answered by advisors within the authority’s contact centres on one of the largest call-handling platforms in Europe, handling millions of calls a year across around 200 sites.

The idea is to replace long, rigid phone menus with voice recognition that works out why someone is calling and gets them to the right place faster.

DWP expects the contract to run for four years from July 2026, with options to extend it to 2032. The department puts the value at £19.5 million excluding VAT, reflecting the scale of its customer contact operation.

It said suppliers will need to meet government standards on security, accessibility and data hosting, but the department says SMEs are welcome to bid.

The procurement fits into a broader drive by DWP to use AI to cut waiting times, reduce pressure on staff and modernise how citizens interact with the welfare system.

Interested suppliers have until February 2, 2026 to put themselves forward, with DWP hoping the winning tech will make one of government’s most painful user experiences a little less frustrating.