Complaints have been aired over the “confusion” caused by Renfrewshire Council’s digital advisor ‘Millie’ in the months after its launch.
The local authority became the first in Scotland to introduce artificial intelligence powered technology to its customer contact centre in November.
But the system, which the council admitted is still “learning”, has attracted the ire of residents and elected members who are growing fed up with its quirks.
Councillor Eddie Devine, who represents Paisley Southeast, said: “I’ve had frequent complaints about it and I’ve tried it myself and I complained to the technical people that it’s confusing.
“It’s not always older people but obviously it’s quite different for us older folks. They might not understand what they’re talking to because they might not be as tech-savvy.
“You try to explain to it what your enquiry or complaint is about, it won’t understand and it will ask if you can say it in fewer words and it just goes on and on.
“The excuse we get is Millie has got to learn but if I’m phoning up because water’s coming in my roof or I’ve got a burst pipe, I’ve not got time to teach a robot what I’m saying.”
Previously, the council’s phone system used a recorded message with a list of numbered options and callers selected the option for the team they thought could help.
However, Millie asks questions to understand what they are looking for and tries to find the most appropriate answer, before offering to text that answer and any relevant information from the website.
If it can’t answer or thinks someone needs immediate support, it will transfer to the specific service and an advisor will speak with them. But Councillor Devine claimed Millie has struggled with the local dialect in certain instances – a situation which has caused frustration among those trying to explain their issue to the digital advisor.
He added: “It doesn’t recognise our accent at times. When I did it, it didn’t understand my accent. It will ask you to say that again and talk slower. It’s just very, very confusing for a lot of folk.”
More than 150 changes have been processed recently to make Millie more effective going forward. A council spokesperson said: “Millie is an additional service that complements the other ways residents can contact us.
“It’s available 24/7 to answer routine customer enquiries, freeing up advisors to focus on more complex tasks and to provide customers with personalised support.
“When a customer calls our customer contact centre, Millie will assist them and it has been shown to be very effective so far with more than a third of calls handled directly.
“If Millie can’t help or thinks they need more immediate support, it will transfer their call to the right service and an advisor will speak with them as soon as possible.
“Every interaction Millie has allows it to learn and become more effective and we’re working closely with our partners to ensure that it continues to provide a better service every time a customer calls.”
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