Columbia County committee approves $38,000 two-year chatbot services contract

The Community Emergency Services Committee on [date] approved a budgeted two-year, $38,000 services agreement with a vendor identified in the transcript as “Rep” to deploy a website chatbot for Columbia County.

Cassidy Harris, identified in the record as the county’s public relations director, told the committee the chatbot will do more than answer simple prompts: "based off the topics [the chatbot] can pull from our database of videos," she said, adding that users who do not get an answer can choose to be forwarded to email, a phone call or continue with a live agent. Harris said the vendor provides reports so staff can monitor transfers to live agents and time spent on cases, and that staff will use those reports to assess efficiency and cost savings.

Committee member Mr. Kennedy asked for a follow-up on savings and measurement: "I'd like to see what the ROI on this is," he said, and requested a report by the end of the year showing how the chatbot is reducing staff time or expenses. Harris agreed the county would use vendor reports to track those metrics.

Staff recommended approval and the committee moved the item on consent; no roll-call vote was recorded in the transcript. The contract was described in the meeting as primarily supporting 311 services and potentially integrating water utility customer service and the tax commissioner’s office.

Next steps: staff will execute the budgeted agreement and monitor vendor reports to measure usage, transfers to live agents and any realized expense reductions; committee members asked for an efficiency report within the year.