South Waikato Council Gets it Right with IBM

The South Waikato District Council (SWDC) in New Zealand faced a challenge familiar to many organizations: efficiently providing citizens with the information they need. With responsibilities spanning local infrastructure, public services, and regulatory oversight, SWDC recognized the critical need for easy access to information. However, important details were often buried within siloed repositories, leading to frustration and delays for both citizens and employees.

To address this challenge, SWDC envisioned a virtual assistant capable of quickly guiding users to the resources they sought. While initial attempts to develop the assistant in-house fell short due to a lack of specialized technical expertise and inaccurate results, the council sought the expertise of IBM. Together, SWDC and IBM embarked on a collaborative journey to create an intelligent virtual assistant powered by IBM Watson technologies.

The resulting solution leverages the combined capabilities of IBM watsonx.ai, IBM watsonx Assistant, and IBM Watson Discovery. Watson Discovery provides advanced data discovery, enabling the solution to extract information from archival and difficult-to-access documents. Watsonx.ai enhances the assistant's intelligence, improving its ability to accurately answer questions. Prioritizing transparency, the development process ensured the integrity and clarity of every interaction.

The new virtual assistant has dramatically improved response accuracy, achieving a validated rate of 91.5% across 300 test questions. SWDC anticipates a significant reduction in the time employees spend answering questions, freeing them to focus on other community initiatives. By providing citizens with seamless access to information, SWDC is enhancing community engagement and improving overall service delivery.

Value Results:

• Improved Accuracy: Achieved a 91.5% accuracy rate in answering citizen inquiries.

• Enhanced Efficiency: Reduced time spent by employees on answering routine questions.

• Advanced Intelligence: Enhanced virtual assistant capabilities using watsonx.ai.

• Increased Transparency: Provides document URLs for easy access to additional details.

• Improved User Experience: Empowers users with natural language queries and instant feedback.