Among the very first to use artificial intelligence to respond to town residents

The chatbot Auður has been launched on the Hafnarfjörður City website. Auður is ready to assist anyone who needs information about the municipality's services.

Auður places the municipality at the forefront of its field in Iceland. This form of service is a new approach to online chat, which shortens waiting times and provides same-day service. But what is different about Auður and other chatbots? Well, he is based entirely on artificial intelligence and has not been fed the information he is supposed to provide.

Benefits of Wealth

The benefits of Auður are set to grow. It is expected to reduce enquiries to the helpdesk by telephone, email and in-person visits. It is also expected to have a strong impact on staff's own information searches.

Where can you find Auda?

Auður is the gull that sits in the right-hand corner of the Hafnarfjörður homepage, and clicking on it opens the option to search for answers.

Why is he a seagull? Well, the seagull follows us Hafnfirðingar. We feel it at the harbour and by the sea in our beautiful town.

Website integration
The chat is accessible from all pages via the chat window or icon on hafnarfjordur.is. Auður does not collect personal information about individual users, but it stores the chat of the person it chatted with on the device itself for a certain period of time so that it is accessible again.

User interactions
Users can ask questions about services, information or specific matters related to Hafnarfjörður, such as events, permits, public services or the community. In addition, Auður knows a few jokes to lighten people's lives.

Scanning content / Crawling
Audur is driven by a system that regularly scans and records material from hafnarfjordur.is. This ensures that it has the latest information to provide correct and accurate answers. Auður also logs users' reactions to the answers and provides herself with feedback on her own responses.

Quick answers
When a user asks a question, the chatbot searches the registered content and provides concise and relevant answers instantly. If further information is required, it can provide links to relevant pages. Additionally, Auður can revise its answers if the user is not satisfied and log it for learning purposes.

Responses to complex enquiries
If the chatbot cannot answer a question, it can direct users to contact details, a telephone number or to specific departments. Furthermore, Auður has settings and rules to avoid „making things up“ or „guessing“, and thus she only sticks to the content provided by the website. It is important to bear in mind that incorrect content on a website increases the likelihood of incorrect answers.

Continuous learning
The chatbot improves over time by learning from interactions, ensuring better and more accurate answers with each use. We also have the option to train Auði on how to respond to specific topics.

A digital team from the City of Hafnarfjörður worked on the implementation of Auður. The work was led by Garðar Rafn Eyjólfsson and Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson in collaboration with Avista. The City of Hafnarfjörður is one of the very first municipalities, if not the first, to take this route.

Yes, Audur is a true treasure for the future.