The city is planning to have an AI chatbot answer some 311 inquiries
Human employees will still handle more complex 311 matters
As part of revamped 311 services set to launch by the end of this year, the City of Toronto has announced that it will launch an AI chatbot to manage the public’s general inquiries.
In a presentation given to the city’s executive committee this week, Danielle Seraphim, head of Toronto’s customer experience division, said the chatbot will help with simple requests, such as showing people how to complete forms or answering questions regarding when potholes will be filled.
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“The most exciting thing is supporting the residents to give them that feeling, what they’re used to in their day-to-day lives and how they use their own apps, having that same experience with the government,” Seraphim told reporters at city hall yesterday, according to CBC.
Human employees will still answer the phone for more complex issues.
Seraphim said 311 receives 1.5 million calls a year, and that around 60 per cent of them are categorized as general inquiries—the sorts of calls the new chatbot will take over.
Per CBC, the report shared by the city this week did not include details of any privacy or safety precautions. When a journalist asked about digital security, Seraphim said the city has a “detailed project plan in terms of security and privacy.”
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
