Blog Post: Ask Elby! Chatbot helps improve the City's Customer Service

The City of Long Beach's recent AI-powered virtual assistant, "Ask Elby," is designed to help residents access city services and information seamlessly. Over the 30-day trial period for Elby, 4,072 Long Beach residents asked Elby a question, and Elby facilitated nearly 7,000 total communications! Common topics included careers, street sweeping, and how to pay your parking ticket.

At its core, Elby uses Natural Language Processing (NLP), a subset of artificial intelligence, to interpret and respond to users' questions conversationally. When a resident types a question, Elby breaks down the input into meaningful components, analyzes the context, and matches it to relevant data on the City’s website to generate an appropriate response. This ability to understand and process human language enables the chatbot to simulate human-like interactions, making information retrieval quick and efficient.

Elby’s responses are powered by a comprehensive database of city information, which includes information on the www.longbeach.gov website, other online public records and news articles, and specific responses created by City staff. The chatbot continuously learns from user interactions with users, incorporating feedback to refine its accuracy and effectiveness. The Technology and Innovation Department collaborated with subject-matter experts in each City Department over 3 three rounds of testing to update the underlying knowledge base during Elby’s design, ensuring that Elby provides accurate, up-to-date information about everything from city permits and event schedules to public works updates and emergency services. Eventually, advanced integrations with Long Beach's internal systems will also enable Elby to retrieve specific data, such as trash pickup schedules or business license requirements, enhancing its utility as a virtual assistant.

Chatbots like Elby rely on a combination of machine- learning* models and rule-based algorithms* to function effectively. These systems are trained on large datasets, enabling them to recognize patterns in language and predict the best responses. As a result, Elby not only enhances the accessibility of information but also optimizes city staff resources, allowing City staff members to focus on high-priority tasks while the AI assistant handles routine inquiries.

*NLP: Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses machine learning to enable computers to understand and communicate with human language.

*Machine learning: Machine learning is a subset of AI that focuses on discriminative tasks. It involves the development of algorithms that enable computers to make predictions or decisions based on data without being explicitly programmed how to do so.

*Algorithm: A process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.