A ROBOT which will answer questions about coronavirus (Covid-19) and signpost people to information has been created by West Berkshire Council (WBC).

The council has worked alongside partners, We Build Bots Ltd (WBB), to develop an Advice Bot which will answer questions and signpost visitors on its website to the latest information they need relating specifically to the current Covid-19 pandemic.

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WBC has been working with WBB for several months to develop a sophisticated AI Advice Bot which will handle several popular council related requests, for example, missed bin collections or green waste.

The council said in this time of emergency it can take advantage of this relationship to quickly develop a Chat Bot solely related to Covid-19 information with the aim of easing pressure on its busy contact centre.

Howard Woollaston, Executive Council Member for Internal Governance at West Berkshire Council, said: “We are pleased that our basic text-based Advice Bot is available to help answer questions that our residents and business may have during this unprecedented time.

“We want to be able to answer the influx of queries to the customer services team as quickly as possible and now we can.

“There are queries, often complex, that are best suited by talking to a human, but for those simpler jobs let’s use the Advice Bot.”

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He continued: “The Advice Bot will give users a series of options to choose from that takes them directly to the information.

“At the moment the Advice Bot will concentrate on signposting users to update them on Council services that are affected from the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic along with directing residents and businesses to our dedicated advice and guidance pages.

“The Advice Bot is another way to get in touch with the Council and over the next few weeks we will developing the Advice Bot to make it more intelligent and better able to handle more complicated questions.”

The Advice Bot is live on the council’s website now.

You will see the icon on the bottom right hand corner on all pages across the website.