The 2018 Maryland Digital Government Summit had over 250 attendees and was well attended by Maryland state and local government partners.
Nancy Schmid, Director of Operations for NIC Maryland, participated in The Citizen Experience panel and discussed how emerging technology, such as chatbots, voice control technology and the Gov2Go digital assistant are changing service delivery and provided strategies to implement these technologies that have given rise to an entirely new paradigm in customer service experience.
Earlier this year, NIC Maryland partnered with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation to introduce the state's first chatbot on Maryland Business Express. In May, Department of Information Technology partnered with NIC Maryland to launch the customer-centric chatbot technology to Maryland.gov, the states official website.
In another first for Maryland state government, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources introduced the "Maryland Fishing Report" and the Department of Information Technology debuted the "Maryland Government News Brief" Amazon Alexa skills. Both skills extended the communication platforms for these agencies while providing new communication channels for citizens to connect with Maryland government.
So, when the question is asked if your agency can implement innovative technology to expedite and extend communication channels for constituents, the answer is a resounding yes! The truth is adopting this type of technology is more attainable than one may think, and sooner or later it will be expected.
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