New „employment“ in Šabac and Sombor, MIA arrives
Starting today, virtual assistant MIA (Municipal Inteligent Assistant) will provide information about the most common administrative procedures, and answer citizens' questions about the current events, working hours and phone numbers in city administration in Šabac and Sombor, in real time, via Viber and the city websites, it was announced at the press conference on the occasion of the platform's official launching.
„I am very pleased to see that, following the implementation of a chatbot on the eGovernment portal, assisting users to get around more easily with electronic services, citizens now also have the opportunity to engage in this modern form of communication in local governmens as well. The goal of Office for IT and eGovernment is to start massive implementation of artifical intelligence in electronic services, upon the establishment of the National Infrastructure for AI“, said Mihailo Jovanović, Director of Office for IT and eGovernment.
The Mayor of Šabac Aleksandar Pajić said that the citizens of Šabac will be able to ask MIA chatbot about the procedures for issuing citizens records certificates, citizenship certificates, tax certificates and the rights related to parental and child allowance, while the Head of City Administration of Sombor Jelena Velebit said that the citizens in Sombor will be able to learn how to exercise the right to child allownace, the procedure for determining the amount of tax debt and the process of issuing certificates of local fees payment.
Sombor and Šabac are the first cities in Serbia to receive their own „asisstant“, and this innovation was realized through the project “Improving municipal services in Serbia and BiH by introducing a chatbot application”, implemented by GIZ, SAGA, NALED, Chamber of Commerce of Republic of Srpska and the regional Business Friendly Environment Network in South East Europe (BFC SEE) within the develoPPP program of German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Within the project, chatbot assistants will also be introduced in Bijeljina and Laktaši in BiH.
„Our analysis has shown that the officers in Šabac and Sombor spend up to 2.400 hours a year answering citizens' inquiries about these procedures, which prevents them from being committed to more complex processes that can still not be digitalized. Hence, on one hand, MIA has the role of easing the burden off employees, and on the other, providing citizens with more quality services. For now, communication is possible via Viber and the city websites, and in the upcoming period it will also be enabled via Facebook Messenger“, said NALED Executive Director Violeta Jovanović.
Director of GIZ in Serbia Daniela Funke expressed belief that the project will show the benefits of digitalization for all public and private actors that take part all around the region, strongly promoting the digital culture. „We firmly believe that the knowledge and experience generated through the project will be very useful for other local governments, due to regional exchange and transfer of knowledge within networks such as BFC SEE“, said Funke.
Director of Software Solutions in SAGA Milan Jevtić demonstrated the chatbot functioning, stressing that MIA is based on artificial intelligence, which is why conversation with her is similar to one with another person. „MIA is already ready to communicate under dozens of scenarios and has the same or higher features than the similar solutions in the most developed countries“, said Jevtić.
