This article written in french by Corinne Prince was automatically translated using AI
The City of Laval has announced improvements in the handling of citizen requests, along with several other initiatives utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the efficiency of its municipality.
“We would like the City of Laval to be the most efficient in Quebec,” stated Mayor Stéphane Boyer during a press conference held on Thursday, October 17. “We have growing needs. We want to respond to the challenges facing our society, our community, and our citizens, but our revenues are limited. In my opinion, efficiency may not be the only approach, but it is definitely the best way to ensure we can go as far as possible.”
Starting in November, the City will provide detailed follow-ups to citizen requests in its handling of inquiries. This decision comes after the success of a pilot project that has been active internally for a year.
From that point on, municipal staff will be accountable at three levels: the response time, the time to first action, and the time to resolution.
All of this data has been analyzed for the first time to produce an estimate of the resolution times for requests in the city’s eight main areas of action.
For example, the resolution time for traffic calming measures is estimated at 60 days, while it would take 21 days to repair a streetlight.
This process has been conducted for a total of 630 different citizen requests. The results will be displayed on the city’s website as well as on 311.
The portal presenting current data along with a comparison to the previous year will be visible to all municipal employees.
The reports will allow the municipality to assess the effectiveness of its teams and adjust their approach as needed, with a goal of continuous improvement.
Virtual Assistant
The City of Laval has also equipped itself with a virtual assistant for 311, again aiming to enhance operational efficiency.
“Citizens want to be heard, understood, but most importantly, we need to accurately capture their needs so they don’t have to call us two or three times or travel to address their request,” said Tania Fonrose, Director of Citizen Experience for the City of Laval.
This robot will be able to transcribe phone calls received at 311 into text, summarize the exchange, make suggestions related to the type of request to create, and ensure the quality of customer service.
The AI will also suggest which service to route the request to so that it gets to the right place quickly.
This will allow staff to focus more on active listening and build a trustful relationship with citizens in need.
On the Ground
The City of Laval processes more than 120,000 invoices from over 10,000 suppliers each year.
To increase the percentage of invoices paid within 30 days from 57% to 80%, the Office of Organizational Performance has implemented an automation tool using AI to process these documents.
The software can read invoices, ensure that all necessary information is present, and send them to the appropriate department.
With its help, the administrative team estimates it can double the number of invoices processed each week and eliminate repetitive tasks from its agenda. The Office aims to reinvest the recovered time into skill development.
Finally, the City has launched a pothole detection system involving AI as well as remotely operated robotic lawnmowers.
These innovations are already operational, with the first under each municipal vehicle cruising the roads of the region, and the second at the Nature Center in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul.
Even though AI is often synonymous with outdated labor, Stéphane Boyer was very clear that no human resources will be replaced by these new technologies.
