Amarillo Building AI-Fueled CX Platform

The City of Amarillo, Texas, is turning to generative AI (GenAI) technologies to build out a new digital platform that makes information on government and city services easily accessible to residents and visitors.

The new digital assistant platform will address frequent citizen and visitor questions regarding park facilities, waste management, and other non-emergency information. The digital assistant is designed to be knowledgeable about the city’s identity, tone of voice, and services in order to fulfill a range of typical citizen inquiries.

Users will be able to ask the digital assistant a question and instantly receive relevant information in multiple languages.

“Our goal is to build a connected and engaged community that can foster a more prosperous future for the citizens of Amarillo,” Richard Gagnon, chief information officer for the city, said in a statement.

He added that the new tool creates a “more effective government in the digital age” and “improves civic engagement and outcomes.”

The city is leveraging its long-term partnership with Dell Technologies to support this new digital service. The new platform will use Dell PowerEdge R760xa servers, which are built for a wide range of uses like AI, machine learning, deep learning, and training and inferencing these applications.

The servers will allow the city to render the onscreen image of the digital assistant and manage the data in the city’s large language models and GenAI applications.

“Dell Technologies is well positioned to help customers and organizations worldwide bring AI to their data and improve access to important information,” said Dr. Alexander Keller, chief technology officer for Services at Dell Technologies. “Our collaboration with the city of Amarillo will provide its residents with an accessible, interactive, and multi-lingual digital solution that quickly guides them to the resources they need.”

The new collaboration builds on the city’s long-standing partnership with Dell Technologies and recent digital efforts, which include laying an IT foundation for a virtual call center supporting remote public health clinics and improving emergency response times with analytics.

This new collaboration, approved in August, allows the city to leverage GenAI to help serve its citizens.

The city expects the digital assistant to be available to residents in early 2024 and serve as a blueprint for other uses within the community, including in its education sector and by city government staff.