The canton of Basel-Stadt has restructured and reworked the information it provides on its new website. The website provides access to various topics and puts the users in focus. Yet, the canton has also taken things a step further. The chatbot Alva, based on a large language model, answers (almost) all questions relating to the canton of Basel-Stadt.
Answers that are actually useful
The key is for a public administration chatbot to provide correct and, most importantly, useful answers. The chatbot was tested for several months by actual users, and feedback was collected. This feedback was then analysed thoroughly. In many areas, the website was then adjusted based on this feedback. This means that the improvements benefit not only Alva's users, but also visitors reaching the website via a search engine or navigating to the relevant page.
Answers that offer additional help
It is vital that users trust the content of a canton's website. Therefore, users must understand where Alva gets its answers from. Given this, Alva's answers always specify which articles and web pages were used to provide the answer. This helps users find more detailed information or access official documents referenced in the answers.
Ensuring quality
In a cantonal context, it is crucial that answers are reliable, so an extended period of testing, carried out in collaboration with the canton of Basel-Stadt, checked the reliability of the answers. The canton's administration specialists tested the chatbot to ascertain if the answers contained any incorrect information. The chatbot was gradually improved to ensure that the quality of the answers was sufficient.