The promise of AI in UK social housing

This is an exciting moment. The sector is under pressure to deliver more with less, while improving compliance and customer satisfaction. AI offers a powerful new toolkit to help achieve those goals.

However, the reality is that AI – no matter how clever – doesn’t natively connect with the housing management systems, CRMs, or asset databases that underpin the sector. A chatbot may generate an accurate answer, but if it can’t log a case, update a tenancy record, or trigger a works order, its usefulness is limited.

There are risks too. Without careful guard rails, AI could make the wrong recommendation, misroute a request, or allow urgent issues to slip through the cracks. Social housing providers have a duty of care to their tenants – so any technology introduced must be safe, reliable, and fully accountable.

In other words, AI can provide the “brain” for decision-making and reasoning, but it often lacks the “limbs” to act effectively within housing organisations’ existing digital ecosystems.

This is where Manifest Software Solutions comes in. As the UK’s leading systems integrator in social housing, we specialise in connecting technologies that don’t naturally talk to one another.

Crucially, we’re not tied to a single AI product. Whether you’re experimenting with your own in-house model, using Microsoft Copilot, adopting third-party solutions like OpenAI, or working with a partner , Manifest can help.

We build the integrations that allow whichever AI you choose to interact directly with your housing management, CRM, finance, or asset systems..

For example, our Virtual Email Attendant shows what’s possible. It uses AI to understand incoming messages and then, through Manifest’s integration layer, creates and routes CRM cases, enriches them with tenancy and property data, and flags priority issues such as damp and mould or vulnerable residents

Most importantly, we build in guard rails and safety nets. Every action is checked, contextualised, and logged – helping providers balance innovation with accountability. The result is that AI stops being a pilot project or a siloed tool and becomes a practical, trusted part of housing service delivery.