The application of chatbot, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based piece of software, into public services has been piloted at the Da Nang Public Service Information Centre.

The project costs around 420 million VND funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Viet Nam.

The project aims to build a chatbot what is called a virtual personal assistant for automatically answering questions about public services raised by local residents and businesses. In addition, it helps to significantly minimise operational cost, and enhance the quality of public services offered by the municipal Public Service Information Centre. 

Moreover, the application of chatbot helps to meet the interaction demand between local residents and the municipal government, boost the application of information technology into public administrative services, and facilitate local residents to easily access transparent information.

The project is being implemented in 2 phases with the focus on updating public administration data to chatbot, building a chatbot for Facebook messenger, and allowing the chatbot to operate on the local Public Service Portal.

Users can access the Chatbot at the website http://1022.vn and through Facebook Messenger. The Chatbot 1022 is expected to be integrated into the city’s e-government system in the coming time.

During the ongoing pilot process, the Chatbot 1022 offers information on such necessary administrative procedures as business registration and civil status.

To date, the city has offered more connections with local citizens in approaching to public service, including the website https://egov.danang.gov.vn/gop-y to get feedback on public services from the  community, switchboard 1022, Zalo, Facebook, and text messages.

Every month, 1,000 opinions and complaints, along with 10,000 phone calls for public service consultancy are received directly from local residents and tourists by the municipal Public Service Centre, while 30,000 messages are exchanged via Facebook and tex.

Earlier this year, the municipal Tourism Department also launched the Danang FantasiCity chatbot, in both Vietnames and English, which is attached to the Danang FantasiCity fanpage. The intention is to help visitors search for local attractions, things to do, events, hotels, cuisine, directions, bank machines, public rest-stops, and weather forecasts.