Services Australia saw a 600 percent surge in the use of its Microsoft Cortana-powered digital assistants during the height of the pandemic’s first wave earlier this year.

Operational planning national manager Gavin Wolfe told the Genesys Virtual G-Summit ANZ  that the unprecedented number of inquiries came as people sought to access online services.

“We had five million digital assistant inquiries for people who are using our web services, but needed a specific question and responded through that process,” he said last month.

“That was an increase of 600 percent of usage through that digital assistant platform.”

Wolfe didn’t indicate which of Services Australia’s three externally facing chatbots saw the surge in use, though it is likely either ‘Charles’ or ‘Sam’ - or both.

Charles answers questions pertaining to the myGov portal, while Sam answers questions about the student, trainee and family payment pages on the Services Australia website
Read more: https://www.itnews.com.au/news/services-australia-chatbot-use-soars-600-percent-during-covid-551218