Digital Citizen Communication 24/7

High inquiry volumes and limited resources in daily administration

With limited resources, the Landratsamt Waldshut has faced growing expectations from citizens for fast, reliable, and easy-to-understand information at any time. Every day, the authority receives a large number of inquiries on a wide range of topics via email and telephone that strain capacity across many departments.

Although much of the information requested is already available on the website, it often requires an active search. This results in repeat inquiries, increased manual effort, the risk of inconsistent information, and restricted citizen services to office hours.

The authority looked for a solution to significantly simplify information access while improving citizen services and relieving internal departments. All of this had to be achieved without additional maintenance effort and without the need to create or continuously update traditional FAQ catalogues.

“It was important for us to find a solution that noticeably relieves our day-to-day administrative work without creating additional complexity.”

Michael Kohler, Digital Transformation Management Unit, Waldshut District Administration

Google AI-powered citizen communication directly from the website

Working with SoftwareOne, the Waldshut District Administration opted for an AI-based, multilingual chatbot integrated with its existing website that automatically answers citizen inquiries. The solution doesn’t require manual maintenance of question-and-answer catalogues and uses only the content already published on the authority’s website.

Technically, the chatbot uses a web-based interface developed by SoftwareOne that integrates seamlessly into the existing website design and color scheme. Integration is handled via a lightweight JavaScript that can be implemented with minimal technical effort.

In the background, Google Cloud technology is at the core of the solution, using the AI Search Application in Google Cloud Vertex AI to continuously crawl the website’s content. A daily automated website crawl ensures that all information remains up to date and that changes, additions, or deletions are automatically reflected.

The website content is processed in so-called data stores and made searchable via Gemini as the large language model. This enables the chatbot to understand questions in more than 100 languages and generate relevant answers—regardless of how the content on the website is structured. No manual modelling or ongoing maintenance of knowledge bases is required.

Special attention is paid to security and operations. The use of reCAPTCHA ensures that the chatbot is only accessed by real users. Billing is usage-based following a pay-as-you-go model, avoiding high fixed costs and allowing ongoing expenses to scale flexibly with actual usage.

More service for citizens; tangible relief for departments

Since going live, the AI-powered chatbot has been supporting Waldshut District Administration’s digital citizen communication in daily operations. Citizens can access answers to website-based information around the clock, independent of office hours or weekends.

The chatbot greatly expands the district’s response capabilities by delivering answers in more than one hundred languages while significantly improving access to administrative information. Many recurring enquiries are handled automatically with minimal effort. This frees up valuable time in the departments to focus on more complex individual cases.

High inquiry volumes and limited resources in daily administration

With limited resources, the Landratsamt Waldshut has faced growing expectations from citizens for fast, reliable, and easy-to-understand information at any time. Every day, the authority receives a large number of inquiries on a wide range of topics via email and telephone that strain capacity across many departments.

Although much of the information requested is already available on the website, it often requires an active search. This results in repeat inquiries, increased manual effort, the risk of inconsistent information, and restricted citizen services to office hours.

The authority looked for a solution to significantly simplify information access while improving citizen services and relieving internal departments. All of this had to be achieved without additional maintenance effort and without the need to create or continuously update traditional FAQ catalogues.

“It was important for us to find a solution that noticeably relieves our day-to-day administrative work without creating additional complexity.”

Michael Kohler, Digital Transformation Management Unit, Waldshut District Administration

Google AI-powered citizen communication directly from the website

Working with SoftwareOne, the Waldshut District Administration opted for an AI-based, multilingual chatbot integrated with its existing website that automatically answers citizen inquiries. The solution doesn’t require manual maintenance of question-and-answer catalogues and uses only the content already published on the authority’s website.

Technically, the chatbot uses a web-based interface developed by SoftwareOne that integrates seamlessly into the existing website design and color scheme. Integration is handled via a lightweight JavaScript that can be implemented with minimal technical effort.

In the background, Google Cloud technology is at the core of the solution, using the AI Search Application in Google Cloud Vertex AI to continuously crawl the website’s content. A daily automated website crawl ensures that all information remains up to date and that changes, additions, or deletions are automatically reflected.

The website content is processed in so-called data stores and made searchable via Gemini as the large language model. This enables the chatbot to understand questions in more than 100 languages and generate relevant answers—regardless of how the content on the website is structured. No manual modelling or ongoing maintenance of knowledge bases is required.

Special attention is paid to security and operations. The use of reCAPTCHA ensures that the chatbot is only accessed by real users. Billing is usage-based following a pay-as-you-go model, avoiding high fixed costs and allowing ongoing expenses to scale flexibly with actual usage.

More service for citizens; tangible relief for departments

Since going live, the AI-powered chatbot has been supporting Waldshut District Administration’s digital citizen communication in daily operations. Citizens can access answers to website-based information around the clock, independent of office hours or weekends.

The chatbot greatly expands the district’s response capabilities by delivering answers in more than one hundred languages while significantly improving access to administrative information. Many recurring enquiries are handled automatically with minimal effort. This frees up valuable time in the departments to focus on more complex individual cases.