The Council is trialling a new digital tool on its council tax billing and support web pages, to help residents with queries about council tax.
Croydon’s AI Assistant pilot aims to help residents find answers to their questions about council tax more quickly and easily, using the information on the website.
The Council receives more than one million contacts per year, and the aim is to speed up response times at a time when lots of residents want to quickly find information about their council tax.
This is a pilot, so the Council will be gathering lots of feedback and working with residents to see how the assistant works for them. Testing has been positive, with the AI Assistant giving good answers to over 80% of questions. The assistant is there to help; it will not stop people searching for the information themselves if they prefer. And there will be no change to contact centre support – telephone advisors will still be on hand to help with more complex queries or issues.
The project is part of the Council’s plan to modernise its website and digital tools, helping residents to more easily find the information, advice, and guidance they need at a time that suits them.
Once the assistant has gone live on council tax, feedback from the pilot will be used to inform a wider rollout across the website.
A lot of the questions asked are simple and can be quickly answered on the website, freeing up time for teams to focus their efforts on more complex enquiries and helping residents with higher support needs.
The AI Assistant will also make it easier for residents and staff to access the information they need, as it will search the website for the answer, so they don’t have to. This means a quicker, easier, and overall better experience. The AI Assistant is based on Microsoft Copilot.
“Our AI Assistant is just one of the ways in which we are changing the way we work at the Council to improve the services we offer our residents. We want to make it quicker and easier for them to find the information and advice they need, when they need it, so we are improving our website and online services.
“As well as introducing new digital tools, we are improving our customer experience across the board. And if more people can find the information they need online, this will free up officer time to support people who need extra help.”
Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon