IrelandPublic sector2020 – ongoingFingal County Council
Watson virtual assistant for pandemic support and council services
Fingal County Council deployed a Watson chatbot to relieve pandemic call-centre pressure
Problem
The pandemic brought a surge in public enquiries. Residents needed remote access to changing information about council services and community support.
Approach
The council worked with IBM and SureSkills Consulting to build a browser-based assistant using Watson Assistant and Watson Discovery. It answered common questions and directed residents to relevant websites when it could not answer. The council reported that it reduced pressure on call centres.
Results
No published figures
Takeaway
The assistant supported an existing community helpline. The council did not quantify the reduction in calls.
Categories
- Industry
- Public sector
- Business function
- Customer service
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Conversational and voice AI
- Adoption
- Partner co-development
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
The council described a deployed assistant that used natural-language processing and AI search to answer public enquiries. It reported round-the-clock availability and reduced call-centre pressure, without a numerical workload result.
Full details are in the original sources.
