MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Montgomery County leaders have announced new upgrades to the artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot on the county's 311 website. Monty 2.0 improves the way residents get information and help from MC311 — the county's online and telephone customer service center.
Monty was added to MC311’s website to provide residents with information related to commonly requested services. Due to limited capabilities at the time, the original version could only answer questions on a narrow range of topics. The upgraded version provides a more robust experience by:
- Ensuring residents receive quick, accurate, relevant and meaningful responses on more than 3,000 topics.
- Seeking feedback from residents to better meet their needs, while working with County departments to improve response accuracy by including their service information.
Monty can converse with residents in a more personable way and can now understand and respond in over 100 languages.
Residents can ask Monty questions such as “Where do I go to vote on Election Day?” and “When is leaf collection in my neighborhood?” to get personalized, location-specific answers from the chatbot.
County Executive Marc Elrich encouraged residents to use Monty 2.0 and give feedback.
“I believe that artificial intelligence has the potential to be a revolutionary technology that can assist and improve how we can serve our residents, businesses and stakeholders,” said Elrich. “I have tasked my administration with finding innovative ways to use AI and applaud the Department of Technology & Enterprise Business Solutions (TEBS) for utilizing this technology in the upgrade of Monty 2.0. I encourage everyone to not only interact and use this chatbot feature, but to give us feedback so the system can continually learn and improve responses. We are aware that AI is far from perfect and still evolving. We are aware of the challenges posed by AI and have been careful in constructing 'Monty 2.0' to avoid any risks.”
Monty's upgrade is part of a bigger AI Action Plan for the county. The plan outlines the county's roadmap to tie innovation solutions into various aspects of public service.
Moving forward, the county is actively exploring more uses for AI, including an internal AI Literacy and Training program.
“Monty 2.0 represents a significant first step forward in enhancing resident-centric services through transformative AI technology,” said County Chief Information Officer Gail Roper. “By leveraging AI, we are providing residents with enhanced interaction, information and support. The success of this effort is a result of the seamless collaboration across our developers, Change Management professionals, leadership and more.”
