APAC Issue 12 2018

20 APAC / Issue 12 2018 , Nuance Communications Inc. and the Office of State Revenue (OSR), part of Queensland Treasury, have today announced the launch of virtual assistant ‘Sam’ across all OSR revenue lines. Using Nuance’s AI-powered solution, it’s the first Australian state government implementation of the conversational virtual assistant. Sitting on Business Queensland and QLD Online websites, Sam provides a conversational interface that allows clients to ask general questions about OSR’s services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Using Nuance’s natural language understanding (NLU), conversational dialogue and advanced resolution techniques, Sam provides more than 300 tailored responses, with thousands of variations to commonly-asked questions across payroll tax, duties and grants, land tax and mining and petroleum royalties. Sam can also direct taxpayers to relevant information on OSR’s web pages. Queensland Treasury Becomes First State Government Department in Australia to Roll-out Nuance- powered Virtual Assistant Deputy Commissioner for OSR, Simon McKee, said, “With Sam, we have provided another channel for our taxpayers to easily access information, 24/7.” “Sam saves taxpayers time by delivering information in a simple, conversational way and reduces the need for them to search for information on our web pages. Sam marks a further step in our commitment to meet or exceed our taxpayers’ expectations” said McKee. Managing Director for Nuance Enterprise, Australia and New Zealand, Robert Schwarz said, “Conversational AI has completely transformed the way consumers engage, providing endless opportunities for government to provide best-practice digital customer experiences. More than ever, Australians are expecting seamless digital client experiences from the private and public sector alike.” “Nuance’s AI systems listen, learn and deliver progressively better outcomes by leveraging big data and human input to emulate live agents. Through this learning loop, we can deliver enterprise- grade solutions, empowering organisations, including government, to provide optimal experiences for Australians. Nuance Nina ensures consistent and intelligent automated conversations with human-like dialogue” said Schwarz. OSR launched Sam in February 2018 to help OSR’s client gain answers to simple tax questions 24/7. Since then, Sam has logged more than 5,000 client interactions – with over 71 per cent of enquiries being resolved at the first contact. To interact with Sam, visit www. qld.gov.au/payrolltax. For more information about Nuance’s Nina, visit: http:// australia.nuance.com/for- business/customer-service- solutions/nina/index.htm. Office of State Revenue deploys Nuance conversational AI solution, virtual assistant ‘Sam’ enabling simple, tailored self-service.