Digital Assistant introduced on Wednesday through gov.cy

The "Digital Assistant," the first Generative AI application of the Cyprus public sector, was integrated on Wednesday into the government portal gov.cy with the Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation, and Digital Policy, Nicodemos Damianou calling on the public to try it out.

A press release issued by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy said the goal is to provide a speedier and more direct communication between citizens and the government by providing information on issues of interest round the clock. 

Citizens will now be able to submit their questions in both Greek and English, with the option to use Greeklish characters for their queries.

The Ministry clarified that in its first pilot (beta) version, the "Digital Assistant" will assist citizens only with matters related to Social Insurance Services. Over time, additional sectors will be added to expand the content it can address.

Citizens will be able to submit their questions both in writing and verbally, and the "Digital Assistant" will provide answers in a simple, understandable, and friendly manner, ensuring the best user experience. It is estimated that the interaction time between citizens and the system will be limited to a maximum of 5 minutes per session.

It is also added that the "Digital Assistant" answers general questions and, therefore, does not require personal information from the citizen, such as their name, age, or address, to provide responses.

It is noted that the "Digital Assistant" is based on Microsoft Azure OpenAI technologies and was implemented according to Microsoft's Responsible AI Standard, ensuring transparency, equality, and respect for user privacy and personal data protection (GDPR). Regarding its content, it has been trained on documents provided by government departments/services that are currently in effect.

It is underlined that the conversation with the "Digital Assistant" is not a conversation with a human, and the "Digital Assistant" is purely informational. Its responses should not be taken as official advice or opinions from the relevant authorities.

The Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation, and Digital Policy, Nicodemos Damianou, urged the public to try the Digital Assistant.

Speaking after the Cabinet meeting,  Damianou announced that the new AI tool, was made available on the central government portal (gov.cy), "which will answer citizens' questions through a chat-like interface."

He said that initially, it will address issues related to social insurance, which are among the most frequent inquiries received by the 1450 call center.

According to Damianou, more topics will be added to the application in the near future.