City of Edmonton Digital Assistant

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The City of Edmonton digital assistant (“digital assistant”) is available to assist you 24/7 to provide you with answers to your questions in a timely manner.

Currently the digital assistant can answer basic questions about:

It is in learning mode at this time which means the more people use it and ask it questions, the better it will learn to adapt and become better over time. The City will determine based on user feedback when the learning stage is complete.

What is the City of Edmonton’s digital assistant?

The digital assistant uses artificial intelligence technology to understand questions and pulls the correct information from our existing City databases. Edmontonians can ask questions and it can quickly deliver information in a timely, efficient manner from a safe, virtual space.

How do I find and use the digital assistant?

You can find the digital assistant on select ETS and Waste Services webpages, as it can currently only answer questions about those service areas.

To use the digital assistant:

Click on the icon ( ) in the bottom right corner of the webpage.
Type your question into the text field.
The digital assistant responds best to short, simple instructions.

How do I clear the history on my chat with the digital assistant?

Hover over the three dots in the blue header on the digital assistant and click “Clear history”

Why does the digital assistant only answer questions about ETS and Waste? What about other City operational areas?

The digital assistant is currently in a learning stage.

We are using it in a limited capacity with these two large projects (Edmonton Cart Rollout, Bus Network Redesign and On Demand Transit) to give it time to learn within a smaller scope and allows us to make adjustments before we look at adding more service areas.

In this initial launch, the tool will have time to learn and adapt to the natural language of Edmontonians, while enhancing its understanding of topics and providing more in-depth answers. As it learns and becomes more effective, the City will consider expanding the digital assistant to answer questions from other operational areas as well.

How does the digital assistant work?

The digital assistant uses artificial intelligence technology to understand your question and pull the correct information from our existing City databases. When asked a question, the digital assistant pulls data from multiple sources and puts it into context to answer your question.

It has been designed to adapt to the real language of Edmontonians, enhance its own understanding of the topics, and provide better answers over time.

Is using the digital assistant the same as calling 311?

Yes - the digital assistant has the same information as 311 for most basic Waste Services and ETS-related questions.

Does the digital assistant work in any other languages, other than English?

The digital assistant only works in English.

What should I do if the digital assistant can’t give me the information I need?

Please use the search function on edmonton.ca or contact 311 for further assistance.

Why do you need to be 18 years old to use the City of Edmonton digital assistant?

The City of Edmonton digital assistant asks that users be over 18 years old to prevent minors from divulging or disclosing personal information and protect minors privacy in alignment with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act.

Please note that the City of Edmonton’s digital assistant is a tool on the website that may collect, use, disclose, share, or retain your address, cell phone number or other personal/identifiable information in order answer your questions related to specific topics and may retain the information for training the digital assistant or for analytics.

There is no explicit content on the tool.

How can I make a suggestion to improve the digital assistant?

For feedback and comments, please email digitalassistant@edmonton.ca.

You can also type the word ‘feedback’ into the digital assistant and it will bring up the “rate your experience (from 1 to 5)” feature.

Can the digital assistant connect me to a 311 agent?

The digital assistant currently cannot connect you with a live agent. To speak to a 311 agent, please call 311 between the hours of 7am and 7pm, seven days a week, to speak to a representative.

Is the digital assistant a real person?

The digital assistant is a robot and uses artificial intelligence technology to understand your question and pull the correct information from our existing City databases.

If you would like to speak to a 311 agent, please call 311 between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm, seven days a week, to speak to a representative.

How come the digital assistant is not showing up for me on the select ETS and Waste Services webpages?

Please try the following:

clear your cache
try a different browser, such as Chrome or Safari
disable any pop-up blockers