No more waiting in line. Since September, the municipality of Plaisir (Yvelines) has recruited the perfect employee: Optimus, an artificial intelligence. From now on, it is this voice assistant that picks up when the city’s inhabitants try to reach the Town Hall. Far more advanced than a simple automated switchboard, he brings real conversation to nice people.
Three out of four missed calls
Developed by the French startup Yelda, the digital voice is capable of providing information on more than 200 topics, says the parisian. It is by relying on artificial intelligence that Optimus is capable of answering the 400 daily calls from the town hall. A demand that was previously difficult to cover, especially during the back-to-school period when up to 600 calls are received.
For the founder of Yelda, Thomas Guenoux, a problem is created around the reception of calls by city councils when a city has more than 10,000 inhabitants. According to him, the democratization of artificial intelligence and voice assistants makes it possible to implement his solution.
50% of requests answered in two minutes
Above all, with this device, the council’s services have become accessible 24/7 and if the two council’s telephone operators continue to answer the phone, they can concentrate on more complex tasks, which require human contact. . Meanwhile, Optimus fulfills half of the requests in less than two minutes.
But with the arrival of this new colleague, the city council employees have also become trainers. Like many people in the world of technology, civil servants “train” artificial intelligence. The goal is to observe the behavior of the called robot. When he doesn’t understand something, he gets better. “Running an AI is like running a website,” says Thomas Guenoux. “It’s accessible to everyone.”
The subscription of almost 100 euros per month to Yelda is 80% financed by a state grant in the name of the digital transition. So the cost is still reasonable, while it could allow Plaisir to stand out. In March, the city will know whether or not it has obtained the Qualiville label, which rewards the quality of a city’s service. A distinction that takes special account of telephone and digital reception.
Source: BFM TV
