Natural Language Processing
Citizens increasingly expect public services to be easy to access and available when they need them. For the City of Kortrijk, this meant finding a way to make information and services more accessible without adding pressure to municipal teams.
The city of Kortrijk is a true pioneer in digital innovation in Belgium, investing heavily in several initiatives that aim to make their citizens’ lives more pleasant and efficient. However, they faced a growing challenge: managing the increasing volume of calls and messages from citizens seeking information and assistance. Their existing systems were struggling to keep pace, leading to delays and frustration for both citizens and staff.
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Increased accessibility to city services for citizens.
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Improved efficiency in handling citizen inquiries, freeing up staff for complex tasks.
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Enhanced engagement through user-friendly and responsive communication.
To address this, Kortrijk started an ambitious plan to develop a future-proof solution: a generative AI virtual assistant. They set up a partnership between themselves, the intercommunale Leiedal (representing the surrounding municipalities), and our competence centres Raccoons, Arinit and Anvil.
This virtual assistant leverages the power of OpenAI’s language models (GPT-4o mini as of wiriting), machine learning, and natural language processing to provide citizens with real-time, intelligent responses. It can handle a wide range of questions, from simple inquiries about city services to more complex issues.
However, the virtual assistant goes beyond basic question-and-answer interactions. It's designed to understand the context of a conversation, adapting its responses to provide accurate and relevant information. It can also detect emotions during a conversation, allowing it to respond with empathy and understanding.
In the future, it will also integrate with other city services, like their online citizen portal, making it even easier for citizens to access the information and assistance they need. Having proven its use in Kortrijk, the chatbot will also be rolled out to the other municipalities of intercommunale Leiedal soon.
The launch of Kortrijk's virtual assistant is a major step forward in digital transformation for local governments in Flanders, and one that has not gone unnoticed. "This Flemish government invests heavily in the digitalisation of the government apparatus," said former prime minister Jan Jambon. "It is very important that local authorities jump on board."
Kortrijk is leading the way, showing how AI can be used to create a more responsive, efficient, and citizen-centric government. Of course, we're proud to be part of its efforts and help it solidify its role as a pioneer!
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