Will AI 'Andy' be handy? Council's manned phone system to be replaced with software in new trial
A Northern Ireland council is to hang up on having receptionists answer calls from the public, replacing them with AI phone handlers.
In an experiment lasting up to six weeks, Ards and North Down Council will turn its lines over to artificial intelligence to see if using software will make interactions with the public faster, more efficient and cheaper.
Officials say the machine call handler will likely be named ‘Andy’ and could tackle up to half of the phone enquiries the council receives.
During the trial, ‘Andy’ will be assigned to a specific phone number that’s only available to a comparatively small group participating in the experiment – but if it goes well, the AI call handler will be rolled out to the general public.
Officials state many of the roughly 36,000 phone calls the council gets every year are routine enquiries seeking information already available on its website, or which need receptionists to redirect them to a specific department of the local authority.
In a report on the upcoming trial, officials say that “can create avoidable delays for customers and place additional pressure on frontline services”, which is where ‘Andy’ could step in.
An AI handler could give callers “quick and consistent answers drawn from approved website content”, they believe, as well as directing more complex enquiries to the relevant department.
The software could also offer services such as texting council forms to callers.
According to officials, handing the phone lines to AI would “help reduce handling time, save staff effort and cost, improve the efficiency of call management, and enhance overall customer satisfaction by giving people faster access to the information they need”.
An option to bypass the bot and speak to a human being will be included.
During a recent committee meeting at which the trial was given a green light, an official admitted ‘Andy’ probably won’t have a simulated Ards and North Down accent, but pledged it would be “a friendly voice”.
“It’s no different than when you ring up lots of other places at the minute,” she added. “There will be gaps and it will highlight that we have gaps, or maybe incorrect information, but that will inform where we go next.”
The trial is being carried out by tech company ICS.AI, which has already installed artificial intelligence call handlers in Bristol and Derby councils in England – their bots named ‘Briz’ and ‘Darcy’ respectively.
Sounding a note of caution was DUP politician Stephen McIlveen, who pointed out the council’s website already presents issues when people try to carry out relatively ordinary tasks such ordering a replacement bin.
“I think [AI] is interesting to try,” he said, adding that members of the public complain of particular trouble getting hold of the local authority’s waste department.
“They generally do need to speak to someone because it will be about missed collections or damage to bins,” he said. “A website that can accommodate those things would be useful.”
The trial is due to begin in September. Although the council doesn’t yet know how much it would cost to run all of its lines using AI, an official said rolling ‘Andy’ out widely would be “big money”, adding: “This is a massive project if and when we decide to go for it.”