After two and a half years of development and trials, government’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot has now been fully integrated into the GOV.UK App.
Having first launched in July last year, as of this week the app has 563,000 registered users. Those signing into the mobile app via their One Login account will now be able to opt in to use the GOV.UK Chat tool. The AI system is designed to enable citizens “to ask questions in plain language and receive instant, clear and reliable answers drawn from official government information”.
Led by the Government Digital Service, development of the chatbot began in 2023 and the platform was initially underpinned by the same technology as ChatGPT – before moving to a different generative AI system: the Claude large language model from Anthropic.
Responses provided by GOV.UK Chat – which GDS recently claimed have demonstrated 90% accuracy in tests – are drawn from data contained in the 80,000 pages of government guidance featured across the 700,000 pages of the wider GOV.UK site, according to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Trials conducted in the past 18 months, in which about 10,000 people have participated, have demonstrated that “demand is strongest around tax, driving and transport, and benefits”, DSIT added. Government also believes that the new platform can be “a powerful tool for businesses”.
The tool is thus designed to answer a range of common questions asked of government, such as: “I’ve just had a baby. How can the government help me? …what government schemes are available to help me buy my first home?… how do I find out how much State Pension I’ll get? [And] how do I set up a limited company?”, according to DSIT.
The wide-scale launch of the chat platform across app users is further hoped to relieve the burdens currently placed on existing service channels, including “some government call centres taking around 100,000 calls per day” – up to half of which relate to queries that could be dealt with by the automated tool, according to DSIT. The department added that “GOV.UK Chat will also help reduce pressure on frontline staff, freeing them up to focus on complex cases where human support is more needed”.
Technology secretary Liz Kendall said: “Modernising our digital services is central to building a government that works for everyone. For too long, navigating government has felt like a full-time job. Whether you’re a parent trying to find out what childcare you’re entitled to, a first-time buyer working out which schemes you can access, or someone approaching retirement, you shouldn’t have to spend time trawling through hundreds of web pages to get a straight answer. GOV.UK Chat changes that – putting clear, reliable information in people’s hands in seconds, at any time of day.”
The app provides a single front door for services and information across departments. The homepage is designed to enable users to feature easy access to their own custom combination of 11 core service areas into which content is grouped: benefits; business; care; driving and transport; employment; health and disability; money and tax; parenting and guardianship; retirement; studying and training; and travel.