Yesterday, 50 people answered 4000 of 196,000 calls received in one state workforce agency to help citizens about unemployment insurance claims. Each of the 50 customer service representatives was working their hardest and served 80 callers each. Fifty people working their hardest resulted in only 0.2% of callers served.

This isn’t a drill. This is real life. This is the crisis we find ourselves in due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Futurists have been envisioning ‘talking computers’ for ages and they are not just science fiction but reality today. Artificial intelligence is already transforming our daily lives. It is no surprise that the government sector is adopting this rapid technological advancement rather quickly. Governments have already begun to adopt chatbots for customer service. Chatbots are computer programs that one can talk to by text or voice and they are helping government agencies improve their speed and quality of service and citizens’ in-turn are getting a better customer experience.

In many cases, chatbots improve customer service - they can speed up interactions, reduce wait times, by way of answering queries with complete accuracy, pulling knowledge instantly from a database, and freeing up valuable time of call center agents. Chatbots are available anytime, anywhere and are easy to use for today’s digital citizens and are soon becoming an essential IT service.

Automation with Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming common today. AI unlocks productivity gains and it makes process outcomes precise and accurate and is scalable technology. Intelligent machines are likely to open new avenues for us to explore, freeing us from mundane, routine tasks and giving us an opportunity to leverage our creativity and imagination.

Futurists have been envisioning ‘talking computers’ for ages and they are not just science fiction but the reality today. Artificial intelligence is already transforming our daily lives. It is no surprise that the government sector is adopting this rapid technological advancement rather quickly. Governments have already begun to adopt chatbots; computer programs that one can talk to by text or voice. This is helping government agencies improve their speed and quality of service and citizens’ in-turn are getting a better customer experience.

The National Pension Education Association (NPEA) annual conference concluded last week and as always, it is said to have been an invaluable forum to stay informed and up to date on retirement education, communication trends, and important issues facing the public retirement community.

 The global chatbot market is expected to reach $1.23 billion by 2025, a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.3%, according to a recent report by Grand View Research. What must you know about chatbots, at a minimum? View our infographic here.