Image source: Derby City Council
Derby City Council has launched an upgraded version of its Darcie digital helper for customer enquiries.
It said the web and phone assistant has been equipped with new generative AI capabilities to understand more complex questions and respond with more detailed answers on a range of council services. These include council tax, bins, fostering, registrations and adult social care.
Darcie was introduced in 2023 to support Derby’s customer service centre, along with the Ali digital helper for housing enquiries to Derby Homes. They have now handled more 1.8 million enquiries, resolving 44% of enquiries without input from staff.
The council said that Darcie can now handle the nine most common languages after English that are spoken in the city, including Arabic, Czech, Pashto, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Slovak, Somali and Urdu.
Request for feedback
It has also encouraged residents to provide feedback by rating its performance through the website.
A more advanced version is scheduled to be released within the next few weeks.
Cllr Hardyal Dhinsda, cabinet member for digital and organisational transformation, said: “We want to use technology to make a positive difference, and our goal is to make things as easy and user-friendly as possible for residents.
“The feedback from the testing phase has been good, and now we want to hear more from residents about their experiences before we move forward with the next phase.
“Derby is at the forefront of this technology and, given the lack of precedents, we don’t expect perfection right away. It’s important that we take the time to learn and refine our approach.”
