Chatbot answers the call for efficient customer service in Aberdeen

Aberdeen is a thriving, cosmopolitan city in the northeast of Scotland offering a wide range of information and services to residents and businesses.

As part of its digital transformation program, Aberdeen City Council worked with Microsoft Services to launch a chatbot to respond to internal queries from employees and answer questions from citizens. Named 'AB-1', the chatbot signposts the Council's 8,000 employees and 250,000 residents to information on a range of topics, sharing information almost instantly. The chatbot is designed to have a bit of personality and even understands phrases from the local Doric dialect, to great acclaim from citizens.

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“AB-1 answers a range of topics and signposts customers to online forms where they can self-serve requests and applications. The response from the community has been very positive.”

Emma Shanks, Customer Experience Officer, Aberdeen City Council

The Coronavirus pandemic undoubtedly had a massive impact on local authorities. In Aberdeen, many council services had to cease overnight. "With the knowledge that was transferred from Microsoft, we were very quickly able to design new conversational flows for AB-1" explains Emma Shanks, Customer Experience Officer at Aberdeen City Council. "We were able to 'keep the lights on' and react to the different types of questions that our customers were suddenly asking for, which was a huge benefit."

“AB-1 allows us to divert really important resources onto frontline services that require that face to face contact. We've managed to release approximately six people's worth of work and we've recovered our costs, which is absolutely fantastic in the first year of delivery.”

Andy MacDonald, Director of Customer Services, Aberdeen City Council

“Before starting our engagement with Microsoft, I really felt that we were a little bit behind with our digital transformation," concludes MacDonald. "Microsoft has wrapped around Aberdeen and shares the same ambitions as we do. Together, we've moved the Council forward so much in the last 12 months and I can not be more proud of what we've achieved."