Hafnarfjörður is now fully immersed in artificial intelligence.

The seagull Audur is a first-rate conversationalist.

„Artificial intelligence. With it come changing requirements, both from the user and those who work with it,“ said Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson, project manager for operational development at the City of Hafnarfjörður, at a Cloud conference held in the Northern Lights Hall at Harpa recently. The conference's theme was; The hottest computer issues ahead.

„This technology makes new demands on presentation, structure and how we store data. Security is also a huge question; what you can and cannot do,“ he said, describing how the digital team of Hafnarfjörður municipality had assessed the projects and how to stay on this path. „We didn't want to stop, but to carry on and take part,“ he said from the podium.

Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson, Project Manager for Operational Development, City of Hafnarfjörður.

Find the best value for the service

„We need to think sensibly as a local authority, and we thought: Where do you start and how? Then you think: What is possible and what isn't?“ Since then, the search for the greatest value for the residents of Hafnarfjörður has begun; external and internal circumstances have been assessed.

During the search, it became clear that ChatGPT had delivered better and clearer results to queries than the town's previous website search engine. „ChatGPT was better at finding more accurate information,“ explained Ingvar. It was clear that this approach was gaining ground, as the use of Google's search engine is declining. Armed with this knowledge, the council abandoned the development of a costly, time-consuming chatbot that had been in the works, and began developing an AI that utilised ChatGPT. But what is the difference?

Great benefits with ChatGPT

„Yes, with ChatGPT you get a sort of assistant, good at writing text and rephrasing, good at translations,“ he said. The City of Hafnarfjörður had developed the solution with Avista.

„They liked the idea and found it exciting to take on this work.“ The chatbot uses the websites of Hafnarfjörður, HMS, the tax authority, the Althingi website and similar sites to deepen its responses for residents. „We could adjust the responses. If the question was complex, the answer was still concise.“

Ingvar says it was important that the chatbot Auður followed the City of Hafnarfjörður's design standards. But Auður also came as a surprise. „What happened afterwards, and we didn't ask her to, was that she learnt the Hafnarfjörður brandur.“

Ingvar says the chatbot analyses how people ask questions and displays it on a dashboard. „That way, we don't have to go through endless chats with Auði.“ She does it herself.

Develop the search engine too

Ingvar said at the meeting that a new search engine was now in development. It could be given different parameters to a chatbot. „It will have access to minutes, news, and events,“ he said.

„The search there is intended as a keyword search. If the search does not return a result, the person asking can bring the search to the chatbot. You can also combine these. This is what we are working on, developing and defining in this classification. From this, you can search for specific material in minutes and ask Auður to make a comparison from the minutes and narrow down the search, or to prepare summaries.“

Yes, it was clear this morning that the City of Hafnarfjörður is at the very forefront of developing services for its residents. Go Audur – go digital team of Hafnarfjörður, for it was this work and the city's digital transformation that led to public sector innovation awards earlier this year.