Dread.

That’s the feeling that most of us get when we realize that a call to a local government agency is in order. It could be that a crack in the street has turned into a tire-shredding pothole overnight. Or that your garbage wasn’t collected for the second week in a row. Or that your water pressure is falling.

No matter the reason, you’re prepared for: 1. long hold times 2. an agent unable to provide an immediate resolution 3. multiple transfers among departments.

311 systems have been around for more than two decades (collecting data that is rich with information, by the way) and yet little progress has been made to modernize the experience in spite of leaps in technological advancements. What happened? For one thing, city agencies are still running on legacy systems that can’t support multichannel expansion. Another pain point is that agency silos are preventing the type of data sharing and collaboration that lays the foundation for predictive, high-value stakeholder interactions.

But government and public service agencies can change the narrative by putting AI to work for their employees and citizens. The use cases for applying AI to data are compelling:

• For residents, imagine using generative AI to segment and create hyperlocal and highly relevant newsletters based on a citizen’s neighborhood, the services for which they’ve registered, their interaction history and stated preferences. Or imagine a resident getting through to a chatbot or agent, who could look up context information such as past interactions to provide information proactively such as “Welcome back Rita. I see that you have an open service request regarding a pothole in your neighborhood. Would you like to get more information about that?”
• Municipalities can use data and forecasting to make tourist and visitor information more interactive and relevant and keep that economic engine growing.
• For government workers, generative AI can reduce call volume and handling times for agents by routing issues and cases in real time to the right resource.

But before cities start imagining what they can do with AI, they must get their people, processes and platforms ready with:

• a holistic vision that considers their network of agencies, the services they provide and how they serve their customers.
• a unified data structure that allows departments to talk to each other for a seamless, multichannel experience. Ultimately, a 311 request should reach all entities that need to be involved.
• a change management program to ensure that your people embrace and champion your 311-modernization journey.

Avanade’s recent white paper on the future of 311 systems is here, with more on practical use cases and where to start. To get your copy and begin transforming citizen engagement with AI let’s connect.