Yes, on three conditions. AI can turn your evidence and your own account of the service into draft answers for the Provider Information Return (PIR), but the registered manager stays responsible for every word, a registered person must still complete CQC’s online form, and the tool must keep your information private under UK GDPR and never use it to train a shared model. Used that way, AI replaces blank-page drafting with a conversation and a review.
What can AI do for a PIR?
A PIR tool built for the job can do four things well. It can turn a conversation or a set of notes into structured answers written in the language of CQC’s five key questions and quality statements, within the 500-word limit per answer. It can organise audits, training records, policies and team updates against the topics the form covers. It can show where a topic has no evidence behind it, while there is still time to act. And it can check a draft against last year’s submission and flag weak or repeated evidence.
What it cannot do is know your service. AI only works from what you give it, and it cannot make thin evidence look strong. Nor can it submit the form: the PIR link is sent to the registered manager and must not be shared.
Does CQC allow AI-written PIR answers?
CQC’s PIR guidance, read on 4 November 2026, sets no rule on how answers are drafted. What it does require is that a registered person completes the form, that the link is not shared, that every mandatory question is answered, and that the answers give an honest snapshot of the service, because CQC may follow up with further questions after reviewing them. Those requirements apply however the words were produced. CQC does not approve or endorse any software or consultancy, and no tool should claim otherwise.
Is it safe to put care service information into an AI tool?
Only after you have checked five things. Where your information is held. Whether anything you type is used to train the provider’s models, which some general-purpose AI tools may do unless you turn it off or pay for a business plan. Who inside and outside your organisation can see it. Whether the supplier holds a recognised security certification such as Cyber Essentials Plus. And who the data controller is. If your data protection lead judges that a data protection impact assessment is needed before you adopt the tool, complete it first, and never paste identifiable information about people you support into a tool that has not been assessed.
How do you use AI for a PIR without losing control?
- Choose a tool built for the PIR, one that knows CQC’s questions and quality statements, rather than a general chatbot.
- Give it real evidence: dates, numbers, audit findings and examples, not adjectives.
- Read every draft answer against the evidence and correct anything that is not true of your service.
- Have the registered manager approve each answer before it goes anywhere.
- Paste the approved answers into CQC’s form yourself and keep the confirmation email.
How does Tilly do it?
Tilly, the AI PIR manager from Insequa AI Solutions, was built by social care specialists for CQC-registered adult social care providers in England. Tilly interviews you about your service, keeps your evidence indexed through the year, shows the gaps, and writes a draft response for every qualitative section of the PIR. Tilly cross-references entries against required care protocols, flags possible errors or weak evidence and helps prevent accidental repetition of previous submissions. Your team reviews every word before submission.
What you tell Tilly stays in your own encrypted environment, is never visible to other providers and is never used to train a shared AI model. Insequa is Cyber Essentials Plus certified and Tilly is UK GDPR compliant. Watch the Tilly demo, no sign-up needed.