We easily navigate through online banking, order groceries with a tap, and video chat with loved ones across continents. Why can’t our governments interact the same way with us?

The outdated communication strategies of many governments leave citizens feeling unheard and disconnected. 

According to McKinsey, the citizen satisfaction score (CSS) for private-sector services is 2.5 times higher than CSS for government services. That is why governments need to find new ways to deliver much-needed customer services to meet their constituents’ needs.

Imagine a government that instantly answers FAQs and tailors policies to individual needs. Next, envision a system where citizens can find their nearest polling booths—or garbage collection days aligned with a constituents’ demographic and behaviors.

Now, enter AI-powered conversational experiences into the conversation.

Oftentimes, government websites resemble legal documents more than user-friendly guides. Citizens might struggle to understand bureaucratic jargon, and personalized assistance feels like a distant dream. 

If they couldn’t find the needed information, they might simultaneously contact multiple departments over various channels. They can even wait an hour for an agent to answer, only to receive confusing instructions.  

All this provides a considerable workload for government staff answering the same question repeatedly rather than focusing on more important tasks. Deloitte’s study found that automating federal employee tasks could save 96.7 million to 1.2 billion work hours per year and $3.3 to $41.1 billion in costs. 

And according to Gartner: 

These citizen-experience journeys can be enhanced with chatbots to improve citizen satisfaction.

While many consumers are already familiar with chatbots since they are a part of almost every customer service in the private sector, they aren’t as utilized in the public sector. In fact, there might be more significant potential in the public sector than in the private sector.

Every citizen needs to use government services occasionally – when renewing their license, paying a parking ticket, voting, or changing their home address.  

Per the Center for Digital Government’s study, most citizens prefer to do it digitally and think governments need to adopt more innovative technologies in their everyday work.  

Here’s where government chatbots come into play and help citizens get fast and easy access to their local governments:  

Chatbots don’t need sleep or breaks, so citizens can get help and information anytime, anywhere, regardless of business hours or time zones.  

Picture a lost passport in New York. A French citizen facing this stressful situation used the local government’s chatbot at 2 AM instead of waiting for the embassy to open. The chatbot provided all the information needed for a new passport application, saving time and reducing anxiety in a foreign city. 

When someone looks for information, it is probably for themselves, not their neighbor. So, why would they need to navigate through irrelevant information when they can get a personalized experience that meets their exact needs?  

AI chatbots use machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and natural language understanding (NLU) to understand user intent and respond to an inquiry naturally. 

They effectively learn from every interaction and improve over time. This means the chatbot can tailor public information to the individuals’ needs and preferences. 

Let’s take India for example. The language of government, business, and public life is English, spoken by just 14% of their 1.4 billion population.  

If their government site is only available in English, it would leave a vast number of the population unable to access government programs and important information because of language barriers.  

Consequently, a multilingual chatbot becomes a game changer. It can automatically detect user’s browser language preferences or offer a language selection menu, and offer personalized experiences.  

Chatbots can also bridge the gap for users with visual impairments or speech difficulties with text-to-speech and speech-to-text functionality.  

Usually, many citizen requests are repetitive, and public sector managers are often limited in their ability to address citizen complaints simply by hiring new staff. Because the public sector is often faced with a limited budget, staff availability, or restrictions on hiring. 

Driven by technology trends, the public sector is modernizing its systems, with chatbots offering a 24/7 supplement to government call centers for daily citizen questions. 

Implementing artificial intelligence in the public sector could:

Source: Accenture 

Chatbots can break down complex processes into manageable steps, adapt their guidance based on your responses, and provide clarification or alternative paths.  

They can instantly answer FAQs, saving time for agents who would need to learn the answers or search for them. 

Chatbots can guide users through online forms, automatically fill in the relevant data, and minimize errors. 

Automating tedious tasks also reduces service costs, frees up employee time, and improves citizen satisfaction.  

The estimated productivity effect of generative AI on the public sector and adjacent industries is $480 billion. To put this into perspective, private sector firms have combined automation and lean management to reduce processing times by up to 80%. 

With data-driven strategies, governments can base their tactics on evidence rather than intuition and guesswork. By analyzing citizen behavior, preferences, and needs, governments can create personalized and tailored experiences for each citizen. 

AI-powered chatbots empower governments to make more informed and effective choices, foster stronger connections, and increase customer engagement. 

Source: Gartner 

Chatbots can help make complex government processes more accessible to citizens by explaining everything they need to know in a simple and clear way. 

This can help promote transparency and accountability, fostering trust between citizens and the government. 

Chatbots for governments have many benefits, and the best way to illustrate their benefits is by giving real-life examples. 

Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE) launched a virtual assistant by integrating a WhatsApp API with Infobip’s Answers to facilitate access to relevant information about the elections.   

The chatbot answers 16 questions about key dates in the election calendar, polling places, positions up for grabs, what is allowed and prohibited on election day, biometric registration, and the use of biometrics. 

Also, the chatbot is used to clarify fake news involving the electoral process.  

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), with Infobip’s technology, launched a WhatsApp chatbot called MyBMC.  

MyBMC chatbot assists citizens, tourists, and businesses in Mumbai to reach out to the administration, seek support, and access various resources. 

Citizens can find information about nearby amenities (schools, civic services, and tourist destinations). They can also directly register complaints, apply for festival permissions, and renew licenses. 

MISSI is Mississippi’s first chatbot for government that helps residents or visitors of the government website around the clock with any questions about the state.  

To access MISSI, visitors can click on the Magnolia chat icon on the right-hand side of the screen or through voice assistant Alexa or Google Assistant. 

MISSI can help schedule appointments with the Driver Service Bureau, renew hunting licenses, find employment in Mississippi, and provide more information about states’ emblems and symbols.  

The New York State Department of Labor chatbot answers basic questions about New York unemployment benefits and guides users through filing claims, managing payments, and verifying their identity. It also offers links to further resources and support. 

Australian Taxation Office introduced a chatbot named Alex to help people and businesses with all taxation-related questions, including property rights, income, and deduction, and filing returns. The virtual assistant takes you to your desired content, saving time and generating a better navigation experience.  

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship in Jordan, with Infobip’s help, launched its first virtual government service center by activating an automated helpdesk chatbot over a verified WhatsApp channel. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Mistry wanted to communicate accurate and trustworthy information with residents during the global pandemic. The user-friendly and accessible platform offers residents timely updates from several governmental institutions.  

These examples of government chatbots show the promising potential for improving citizen engagement and service delivery, but there are also several possible issues to consider.  

As you know, chatbots need data – they are built on vast amounts of data and collect personal information to learn and better understand user inputs.  

All this data needs to be stored, which leaves citizens susceptible to several potential risks, including data breaches, information misuse, privacy violations, surveillance, and profiling.  

If they are built on a particular type of data, for example, if specific demographics were not included in the training set, they can be biased and further reinforce discrimination. 

Therefore, governments and developers need to:  

Implement robust data security – Employing cutting-edge encryption throughout the data lifecycle can significantly reduce the risks of unauthorized access.  

Source: Gartner 

Conduct regular security audits – Regular testing and vulnerability assessments help identify and address potential weaknesses before they are exposed or exploited.  

Establish strong data protection regulations – Governments should write privacy policies explaining what data is collected, why, how it is used, and with whom it is shared. This includes granting users access to rectify or erase their data. 

Source: Gartner 

Ensure accurate and unbiased information – Chatbots must be trained on diverse factual datasets reflecting various perspectives to avoid data bias.  

Be accountable for errors – Users should be informed of errors or data breaches and what steps are taken to prevent them. It would be beneficial if independent bodies reviewed how governments and developers handle processes to ensure transparency.  

Integrate human-in-the-loop – Even though chatbots greatly assist humans in mundane tasks, this must work both ways. In some cases, chatbots won’t be able to answer users’ complex questions, which is why it is essential to have human oversight and support. 

Prioritize data education – Governments should clearly communicate about chatbot capabilities and data usage.  

By implementing these strategies, government agencies can build trust and transparency with citizens and ensure their chatbots are valuable tools for improving government-citizen relations.  

Building trust is an ongoing process, requiring continuous effort and adaptation based on user feedback and evolving technological capabilities. 

The future where governments anticipate citizens’ needs before they even ask – healthcare systems reaching out for preventative screening or identifying citizens likely to benefit from special government programs or education initiatives – could happen sooner than expected.  

But how can we help promote this? We all should be informed citizens who explore the latest trends in tech, understand benefits and limitations, share our thoughts and concerns, and advocate for change.  

Our job is to urge governments to explore and adopt these tools with transparency and accountability.  

Remember, a responsible and innovative government starts with an engaged and informed citizen.