Sullivan County Partners with Google to Introduce New ‘Virtual Agent’

Sullivan County has become the first such municipality in upstate New York to deploy Google’s “chatbot” service, known as Dialogflow CX. Developed in collaboration with technology services provider SpringML and the County’s Information Technology Services Division, the Sullivan County Virtual Agent debuted this month at www.sullivanny.us.

“We invested in this technology with the twin hopes that it will quickly lead web users to the information they seek and will reduce the time County staff spend on the phone answering basic questions,” County Manager Joshua Potosek explains.

The Sullivan County Virtual Agent is an artificial intelligence-driven program designed to immediately and accurately answer questions from users on the County website. When users click on the chatbox logo in the lower right of their screen, the Virtual Agent will provide a list of clickable topics and a spot to type in questions.

At present, the Virtual Agent only covers questions about the County Clerk’s office (including the Department of Motor Vehicles) and the County Treasurer’s office – two of the busiest public-facing offices in County government.

For more information, go to www.sullivanny.us.