Why choose us

Experts in AI for casework

Track record with public services. Our team includes a caseworker turned AI engineer.

Fresh yet credible

Rapid, agile, effective delivery. Experienced leaders from best-in-class organisations.

Product builders

Multidisciplinary team delivering productivity improvements across your service.

Our values

Compassion

We centre humans in our design and development. We treat our stakeholders, end users and colleagues with consideration. We put ourselves in others' shoes before making decisions.

Craftsmanship

The work is its own reward. We protect time for our team to learn new skills. We don't ship products until we're proud of them.

Integrity

We make efforts to minimise discrimination and exclusion through our products. We're transparent about our mistakes and learnings. We create space for team dissent.

Our story

Motivated by lived experience, backed by government.

2009

The worst day of Andy's life; a seed of HelpFirst's mission.

2019

Andy founds SIDE Labs - standing for Social Impact Digital Explorers

2023

HelpFirst spins out from SIDE Labs. We take a helpline automation project forward for Citizens Advice Scotland. We beat 19 other teams to win Scottish Government funding - to build a solution for prioritising vulnerable clients.

HelpFirst are a superstar team from the Civtech 8 cohort. Their speed out of the gate was absolutely phenomenal. The team really embody the ethos of CivTech, marrying innovation with the demands of government delivery.
Mark Elliot
Programme Director
CivTech

2024

HelpFirst receives an Innovate UK grant to develop an LLM-powered chatbot for Citizens Advice Network. Our ‘intelligent case notes’ product is launched in beta. We’re shortlisted in the DigiLeaders Impact Awards, bringing our total to 4:

Digital Leaders Award, AI Innovation runner upDigital Leaders Award, future of work runner upHelplines Partnership Award, Shortlisted for Innovation and future-proofing
Winner, tech for Good, Scotland Is

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