The City of 麻豆精选 now has over a dozen chatbots that field thousands of questions on various topics from residents, businesses, and developers.
They handle approximately 38 per cent of inquiries, and in the first six months of 2024 handled more than 36,000 conversations and fielded nearly 69,000 questions.
Five topic-specific chatbots (revenue, landfill, recreation, bylaw services after hours and snow removal) are available on city phone lines as a first point of contact. Other bots exist on the city's website and deal with topics such as building permits, and fast-track infill housing.
鈥淎lthough not perfect, our chatbots will improve over time and with increased use,鈥� said Andreas Boehm, intelligent cities manager. 鈥淐ity staff diligently watch the conversations and improve the chatbots鈥� responses and add more service integrations whenever possible.鈥�
The city began implementing chatbots in 2020.
鈥淎side from expanding our service channels, the city鈥檚 aim is to reduce the time staff spend answering routine questions so they can devote more time to complex inquiries, enhancing the customer service we provide,鈥� Boehm added.
The city recently won an International Association of Business Communicators Gold Quill award for Strategic Artificial Intelligence and a Municipal Service Delivery Officials Excellence in Innovation Award for its building permit chatbots.
More information can be found on the City of 麻豆精选 website.
