Artificial Intelligence is growing in use not only in corporate America, but in state government as well.
Anyone who’s logged onto the Missouri Department of Revenue’s website has most likely met “Dora.” JoDonn Chaney, Strategy and Communications Director for the Department of Revenue, introduces us to Dora.
“Dora is a chat bot that was instituted a few years ago with the Department of Revenue,” he told Missourinet. “The intent was to benefit customers and to be able to provide information in a more timely fashion based on their schedule.”
Chaney said most customers ask Dora about motor vehicle registration and tax issues.
“Motor vehicle(s), that’s our top request,” he said. “People asking about driver’s license(s), that sort of a thing. That’s our top request. Then also the next would be tax issues that they’re dealing with, and these are general questions.”
Dora won’t provide detailed information on a person’s income tax returns – that information is blocked by security protocols. Instead, anyone making that type of request would be redirected to a web page where you’d have to fill out a security form.
Dora was also upgraded to be a generative AI system in May of this year.
“We updated Dora so that…it’s now a learned, a learning application where it goes in and it looks at the information on our website and then processes that and compiles that and is able to provide quality information,” Chaney said.
Chaney warned, though, that customers can get wrong answers depending on how they ask a question, stating that Dora is only a chatbot that draws on banked information. There have been some complaints from customers visiting the DOR’s website.
“Knowing how to use the product often is a factor,” Chaney said. “That’s generally where the wrong answer might come from, is that the customer is not putting in the correct information and they’re getting a response that is not helpful to them.”
But the chatbot is not the only AI application used by the Missouri Department of Revenue. Chaney told Missourinet that the state agency also uses Copilot, which can be used to shorten and summarize documents. And the DOR’s General Counsel office uses an AI app called CoCounsel, which Chaney said is used to help write legal briefs and conduct research.
For those who choose to call the Dept. of Revenue, they have the option of using an AI-generated operator.
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