Digital Assistants 101-17051500

Item

Question

1

Who provides the Digital Assistant's responses?

Responses provided by the Digital Assistants are pre-authored and automated. The Digital Assistants are programmed to understand general questions and provide a response to the question asked. Customer questions are regularly reviewed and used to develop responses to new questions over time.

2

What happens if the Digital Assistants cannot respond to a question?

Digital Assistants assess a level of confidence in understanding the intent of a question asked.

If the level of confidence is not met, the Digital Assistant will not provide a conversational response. It may either request the question be re-phased, attempt to disambiguate or use key words from the initial question to search trusted government websites and produce the top 3 results from that search within the chat.

Common reasons the Digital Assistant can't answer a question are when the customer:

• provides CRN or Medicare numbers, names and dates of birth, an address or contact details; or
• asks a question that is very long and contains too many words; or
• asks the Digital Assistant a question that is not about a Services Australia payment or service (for the Services Australia Digital Assistant), or not about myGov or a Member Service (for the myGov Digital Assistant)

3

Who can use the Digital Assistant?

Services Australia

Anyone visiting the Digital Assistant-enabled web pages on the Services Australia website can use the Digital Assistant. Customers do not need to be signed into their online account to use the Services Australia Digital Assistant.

The Digital Assistant is also available within an authenticated Centrelink online claims session and provides general and many payment specific answers relating to online claims.

Anyone signed into the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app can use the in app Digital Assistant.

myGov

Anyone visiting the myGov website can use the myGov Digital Assistant. This is available on both unauthenticated and authenticated myGov web pages so users do not need to be signed into their myGov account to use the Digital Assistant.

4

How do I manage incoming queries about responses provided by the Digital Assistant on the Services Australia website, Express Plus Centrelink mobile app or within an online claim?

Explain that the Digital Assistant only provides general information or useful links and that answers are not specific to personal circumstances. Advise customers not to enter any personal information, such as their name or address, into the Digital Assistant.

The current customer facing Digital Assistants are unauthenticated on selected Services Australia web pages, authenticated Centrelink online claims and authenticated mobile app. Staff should note the distinction between the customer focused content provided by these assistants and the content provided by staff facing Digital Assistants. Staff should not relay content from the staff facing Digital Assistants to customers.

5

Will more questions be able to be answered by the Digital Assistants?

Questions asked of the Digital Assistants are regularly reviewed with additional questions and answers developed to enhance the digital experience and decrease the contacts made through non digital channels.

The Digital Assistants Team analyse customers' questions, review, update answers, and add new questions to improve the Digital Assistants regularly.

6

What if the answer provided is not correct for the question asked?

If issues are identified around incorrect content, problems with the interface and or Digital Assistant functionality, staff can provide feedback to the Digital Assistant team.

7

Are any questions or answers recorded on a person's record?

No, questions or answers are not currently recorded on a customer's record. This may change in the future, as the digital service offer changes.

8

Are the Digital Assistants available all times during the day?

Yes, the Digital Assistants are available 24/7 to assist customers.

9

What languages are the Digital Assistants available in?

The Digital Assistants are currently only available in English.

10

Do the Digital Assistants complete tasks on customer records?

No, any information typed in the Digital Assistant is not recorded on customer records.