Ask Nim – AI For Good Showcase

Oct 1, 2026

9th September 2026 – Kingston Guildhall

Practitioners, borough partners and other members of the skills & employment community gathered in the Queen Anne Room of the Kingston Guildhall to witness the AI For Good Showcase, delivered by Cameron King, Kingston’s Skills & Employment Lead, and Dominic Atkinson, founder of Stay Nimble. Ask Nim is an AI chatbot, based on Open AI models, designed to respond to residents’ employment-related queries by suggesting curated resources, tools and programmes to help in their work search.

Alongside the AI tool, Cameron announced a new page created to bring together Kingston Council’s employment support offer: Council jobs | Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, where an embedded instance of Ask Nim can be accessed. Connected Kingston has integrated this skills hub into their own offer. Ask Nim can also be accessed directly.




Why Kingston did this


Stay Nimble, is a company that supports local authorities and communities across the UK to build lasting career infrastructure. Kingston is one of five pilot sites in London where Stay Nimble is working to implement employment support tools powered by AI. The goal is to drive participation in existing programmes, and in the process, identifying gaps that new programmes might be needed to fill. Examples of the kind of programme Ask Nim can refer residents to include Connect to Work or training courses such as those provided by Apolitical for civil service.

Cameron brought up the trends which indicate the need for more integrated employment support. Skills and employment has become more intertwined with health (physical and mental). Citizens Advice used to get an average of two health-related reasons for unemployment from people referred to their services, now it’s five reasons. One of the attendants, Suzie, was in the process of onboarding for a job at Kingston Council, a job which she was directed to by using Ask Nim.

Another attendant, Robin, provides support to older residents, a process that will be aided by the improvements in employment support integration. Ask Nim can be used independently by residents, but it can also be used by practitioners in their work with residents. Stay Nimble jointly delivers the CPD-certified programme Career Allies with Kingston Council, which is designed to equip practitioners to have better conversations with the chatbot.


What has been learned


Over ten years, Stay Nimble has supported 420 thousand people across the UK with 1:1 coaching and a suite of digital tools. Funded by Accenture and working together with local authorities, housing organisation, charities, etc, Stay Nimble has achieved the following since 2022:

  • 557 residents have been supported
  • 356 employment outcomes achieved
  • 1.8 million pounds in social value generated
  • 2900 hours of coaching and 9000 activities completed

The core thesis of Stay Nimble’s work is: ‘How could confidence with AI start with free access, no barriers and something useful enough that confidence follows, without a course?’

Ask Nim was the result. It can be used anonymously, and only refers to previously approved information chosen by Kingston Council. Based on OpenAI models, it is a closed and safeguarded environment that has been improved in line with ongoing developments in AI while remaining bounded to its mission. It was initially developed at a time when the leading AI models did not have a live connection to the internet, but this has since changed.

As a controlled environment evaluated by employment support professionals, it has a low risk profile of possible interactions, and serves as a confidence building tool and a safe introduction to using AI. Only checked UK services and links can be provided by the chatbot, which has safeguards in place to ensure it stays on topic and isn’t able to engage in anything dangerous. It’s also designed to make no assumptions about somebody’s feelings, remaining neutral and functional, signposting more urgent support in a crisis.

Existing use of the tool has yielded the following insights, which can be uniquely gathered from situations which are not typically accessible to practitioners, such as when people are using it alone at home in the evening. Statistics of conversation topics include 57% related to finding and applying for jobs, 11% – support for career direction, getting on, trouble at work, 8% – queries about benefits and other local services. The languages that people chat in vary as much as the topics being discussed, with 1 in 20 messages not being in English. Top alternative languages include Arabic, Ukrainian, Spanish, Turkish, Farsi and Chinese.




Where this goes next


The curated library of available resources is always being expanded. Folks with suggestions for items to be included are encouraged to contact Cameron King (cameron.king@kingston.gov.uk). Part of what makes Ask Nim accessible is its affordability, in contrast to the common subscription model and limited free use of most AI products. Accordingly, it will remain free to access with a Stay Nimble account.

Referrals can also be given to use Thrive, a more comprehensive experience built on the foundation of Ask Nim. Tools include CourseFinder and JobRadar, which can search across many niche job boards and employer sites to efficiently gather more valuable opportunities for users.

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