What do the public think about AI note-taking tools in social care?

Dozens of Local Authorities across England are piloting automated note-taking tools – often called ‘digital scribes’ – in social care assessments and other interactions. These AI-enabled technologies automatically record, transcribe, and summarise assessment meetings into standardised templates, promising a reduction in administrative burden and more time to focus on interpersonal interactions. While research has begun to explore staff attitudes toward these tools, public perspectives remain heavily underexplored. This paper details findings from a survey experiment with 1,127 carers in England, examining attitudes toward these automated note-taking technologies. The study compares perceptions between: automated versus manual note-taking; fully automated systems versus those with human review (‘human in the loop’); and investigates demographic differences in attitudes. We draw on this data to set out a four-fold typology of attitudes: ‘enthusiasts’, ‘cautious adopters’, ‘pragmatists’ and the ‘resistant’.