City launches first-ever chatbot with voice recognition for customer services

News Release from City and County of Honolulu, Dec 10, 2021

HONOLULU - (Since HGEA members won't answer the phone, )The Department of Customer Services has rolled out a chatbot on its website to instantly answer the simplest and most frequently asked questions from thousands of O‘ahu residents.

The chatbot named Akamai is the first of its kind for a department in the City and County of Honolulu, and has been equipped to deliver quick voice or text responses to more than 100 questions primarily related to motor vehicle and personal ID services. 

Like any bot tool, the chat and voice recognition features will get smarter as residents use them.  Capabilities will be added as new needs arise, including conversing in multiple languages.

The department gets more than 1,000 phone calls every day from customers inquiring about everything from how to title and register a motor vehicle to where to obtain a driver’s license and replace a lost state identification card.

By clicking on the “Ask CSD” button located on the bottom right corner of the department’s website, residents will get an immediate response.  Also, a resident may get transferred directly to a pop-up message from the chatbot intended to guide them in the right direction. 

“The main benefits of our chatbot is its ability to make the task of finding information about our services as quick and simple as possible,” said Nola Miyasaki, director of the City’s Department of Customer Services. “It takes the burden of looking for information off the shoulders of our customers and allows us to better serve them into the future.”

To access the website for the Department of Customer Services, go to honolulu.gov/csd

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SA: Column: Say hello to city’s new Akamai chatbot