The City of 91大黄鸭鈥檚 newest employee has been uploaded and they鈥檙e ready to answer frequently asked questions about the city鈥檚 COVID-19 response.

Citybot, a chatbot program designed to simulate a human-like conversation, now resides on the homepage of the city鈥檚 website. Launched Dec. 7, the city says the bot responded to more than 200 COVID-19-related questions. Currently, the bot has not yet been programmed to discuss non-COVID topics.

鈥淩ight now, the 91大黄鸭 Citybot is programmed to answer questions about COVID-19 and is being monitored and trained by staff to become better over time,鈥� said Andreas Boehm, intelligent cities manager at the City of 91大黄鸭. 鈥淲e wanted to start small because we are still learning, as is the chatbot. Citybot doesn鈥檛 know it all, but it will do its best to provide good customer service anytime, day or night.鈥�

In the future, the city plans to expand Citybot鈥檚 abilities to include more city business and potentially integrate the bot with online city services.

鈥淓ventually, we鈥檇 love to see the Citybot not only provide accurate answers to users鈥� questions but also be able to do things on their behalf, like report an issue or register for a recreation program,鈥� said Boehm. 鈥淏ut, if we are dreaming big, we鈥檇 love to see Citybot become a voice-activated option with enhanced accessibility for tapping into city information and services.鈥�

To try out the bot, visit and click on the chat icon on the bottom right side of the screen.

READ MORE: 91大黄鸭 Regional Transit to receive $7.3M in provincial, federal grant

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