If you have visited the City and County of Honolulu website recently, you may have interacted with a new chatbot named Akamai. This chatbot can respond to typed and spoken questions from computers and mobile devices. The city is moving to launch this digital service in departments that interact with the public to quickly guide online users to the right information.

During the coronavirus pandemic, most cities have experienced unrelenting waves of questions about basic services, such as driver’s licenses, state identification cards and motor vehicle registrations. Chatbot technology is beginning to serve a vital role in augmenting the capabilities of human staff members. Digital tools such as chatbots can help Oahu residents get more out of online public services while reducing the amount of time spent by staff addressing public inquiries.

The call center at the Department of Customer Services fields more than 1,000 calls per day about driver’s licenses, motor vehicle registrations and state ID cards, and emails never stop flowing into the department with repetitive questions that are all usually addressed by FAQs on the department’s website.

Although the City and County government has been integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its applications for more than three years, Akamai is the first public-facing AI-powered application. Deployed on the Department of Customer Services website in early November, Akamai provides a simple path to information about driver licensing, state ID card and motor vehicle registration services in the City and County of Honolulu.

The Department of Information Technology worked with the Department of Customer Services to build a chatbot that handles the most frequent questions. Capabilities will be added as new needs arise, including conversing in multiple languages, telephone access, and integration with licensing and registration systems.

Akamai is the first of many chatbots planned for departments and agencies in the City and County of Honolulu. The technology is designed for Oahu residents whose questions can be answered easily so that call-takers can focus on customers whose questions will take more effort. The chatbot also performs the same task 24/7 without getting bored or tired.

The Department of Information Technology also has begun building machine learning systems for the Department of Customer Services that can read and process both printed and handwritten forms, checks and applications.

Our online payment platform, HNL Pay, launched this month. For all the negative impacts of the coronavirus, there will be great benefits from artificial intelligence technologies implemented in response to the pandemic. The residents of the City and County of Honolulu can look forward to streamlined and expanded digital services as we continue our commitment to modernization and innovation.

Mark D. Wong is the city’s chief information officer and director of the Department of Information Technology.