Using AI to test ideas that help public services share and adapt good practice

ProMo Cymru used AI to rapidly prototype ‘Knowledge Exchange Wales,’ a GitHub inspired platform to help Welsh public service organisations share and adapt successful good practice.

The Challenge

The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), which is made up of 10 councils from across South East Wales, has a vision to drive economic development. In order to realise this aim, they are seeking to build regional capacity to support Wales in achieving net zero. To increase innovation in this area, they issued an invitation to take part in a collaborative programme. The programme brought together local authorities, private companies, Transport for Wales, and the third sector in a space to test ideas. 

ProMo worked closely with Newport City Council, Monmouthshire County Council, and Transport For Wales to understand the barriers to cross-sector collaboration on climate initiatives.

What we discovered through our conversations would reshape our understanding of the problem.

Difficulties in Sharing Learning

What we found surprised us. The biggest obstacle wasn’t a lack of innovative ideas or even funding constraints. Rather, it was a fundamental issue of knowledge sharing. Organisations were frequently duplicating efforts because they lacked visibility into what others had already tried, tested or refined. Aside from email, there were no unified digital methods of knowledge sharing (Sharepoint was mentioned, and a lot of people shook their heads!)

Local authority staff were particularly vocal about this challenge. They often suspected that solutions to their problems existed elsewhere but had no efficient way to discover and adapt these practices to their local context.

Borrowed Concepts

This insight led us to a concept inspired by how software developers work together: GitHub for Good Practice.

For those unfamiliar with GitHub, it’s a platform that revolutionised software development by enabling developers to:

• Share their code publicly
• Allow others to ‘fork’ (create their own version of) existing projects
• Track relationships between original and adapted versions
• Document issues, changes, and improvements
• Collaborate across organisations and geographic boundaries

We saw a parallel opportunity in public services. What if organisations could share their successful initiatives with the same transparency and adaptability?

The Prototype

Rather than spending months in planning meetings, we opted for a rapid prototyping approach to test our concept. Using Claude AI’s projects and artifacts capability, we quickly developed a working prototype called ‘Knowledge Exchange Wales.’

It is not a finished product but rather acts as a useful way to gain further insights.

The prototype demonstrates several key features:

1. Practice Sharing: Local authorities can document successful initiatives, including detailed case studies and key learnings.
2. Categorisation: Practices are organised by sector (Digital Services, Environment, Education, Health) for easy discovery.
3. Forking Capability: Organisations can ‘fork’ existing practices, documenting how they’ve adapted the core idea to their local context.
4. Relationship Tracking: The platform maintains clear connections between original practices and their adaptations.
5. Detailed Documentation: Each practice includes both a concise summary and in-depth implementation details.

Try the Prototype

You can explore the prototype today. Visit Knowledge Exchange Wales Prototype to experience the platform firsthand. The website showcases how organisations can share initiatives, discover others solutions, and adapt practices to their local contexts within an interface built using AI powered rapid prototyping.

The prototype showcases real examples such as Monmouthshire Council’s Staff EV Programme, demonstrating how different organisations could share their unique expertise.

The Value of Prototyping

There is a famous quote about prototypes, “One prototype is worth a thousand meetings.” The interactive model provided stakeholders with something tangible they could explore and respond to, generating much richer feedback than conceptual discussions alone.

Using AI to rapidly prototype had several advantages:

• Speed: We created a functional demo in hours rather than weeks
• Flexibility: We could iterate quickly based on immediate feedback
• Visualisation: Stakeholders could ‘see’ the concept rather than just imagine it
• Engagement: The prototype sparked more meaningful conversations about implementation details

While the AI-generated prototype would require professional development for a fully working version, it perfectly served our purpose at this stage of the project: validating the concept and gathering informed feedback.

Current Status and Next Step

The project currently sits in the Develop stage of the Service Design Double Diamond. The response from local authority staff has been overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing enthusiasm for a platform that would allow them to share knowledge in this structured way.

However, several important questions remain to be addressed:

1. Platform Ownership: Who would ultimately own and maintain the platform?
2. Quality Assurance: How can ‘good practice’ be defined and validated in a way that ensures quality without creating barriers to sharing?
3. Integration: How might this platform connect with existing knowledge management systems or informal sharing networks?
4. Sustainability: What funding and governance model would ensure long-term viability?

Get Involved

We believe the Knowledge Exchange Wales concept has significant potential to transform how public sector organisations collaborate and innovate. The prototype demonstrates that the technical challenges are surmountable, but the organisational and conceptual questions require further exploration with partners.

If you’re interested in joining us to further develop this idea, or if you’ve seen something in this case study that connects with your work, we’d love to hear from you.

Contact Nathan at ProMo Cymru to continue the conversation and help build a more collaborative future for public services in Wales.