Facts at a glance
Client industry:
State government
Challenge:
Language barriers hindering resident satisfaction and staff productivity
Solution:
A ground-up initiative leveraging conversational agents
Insight provided:
- Consulting Services
- Cross-functional workshop to identify client needs
- Reference architecture
- Solution roadmap for phased implementation
- Technical implementation
- Functional and performance testing
- Language partner coordination
- Google Cloud Platform expertise
- Infrastructure security
Outcomes:
- Greater inclusivity across 300K+ population
- 140K+ user sessions and 70K+ self-service interactions in six months after launch
- Projected $10M in annual savings
- Improved efficiencies and service times
Download the case study
The vision: A platform grounded in inclusion for easy access to services
For leaders at one state’s DVS, ensuring access to services regardless of language is top priority. More than 70 different languages are spoken across the state — a fact that led to challenges for statewide services once offered primarily in English.
When non-English-speaking residents provided feedback about the difficulty they were experiencing in accessing services, the DVS took swift action to put a more inclusive solution in place.
A secondary concern involved department staffing. To receive in-person services, a resident had to schedule an appointment. The department relied on appointments to dictate when employees were scheduled to work, but many appointments were not kept, leading to underutilized staff and challenges scaling services to meet demand.
An integrated solution built on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Together, Insight teams and DVS built a comprehensive adoption strategy for a system — powered by GCP — that could translate content and offer personalized assistance in real time. Using components such as Dialogflow and Translation Hub, the solution integrates AI and ML, so its responses can adjust to dialects and phrases over time. Insight mobilized a diverse group spanning developers, project leaders, user experience designers and translation experts to build out the solution.
Thoughtful solutioning: How we worked together
Insight adopted an agile approach for the DVS, fostering transparency and enabling the state's representatives to actively participate in project development. Weekly meetings and biweekly reviews facilitated the exchange of ideas, ensuring that the end product met the state's needs effectively.
- Gain a shared understanding of strategic objectives.
- Define problem statements that incorporate pain points, success criteria and areas of opportunity.
- Ideate on features for chatbot improvements as well as broader digital language barrier solutions.
- Prioritize essential top ideas and opportunities.
Steering the solution toward success
After gaining a shared understanding of our client’s goals and pain points, the initial phase of the project involved a testing period and rollout of the system. Capable of real-time translation, the virtual agent ensured that the state’s most-spoken non-English languages such as Somali and Spanish were effectively represented. This conversational tool, embedded on the agency’s website, would make it convenient for users to access frequently-used actions, from updating insurance information to renewing vehicle registration and beyond.
Insight has also since helped DVS expand its support by introducing a backend service for translating documents and texts. This service includes a customized glossary, ensuring consistency in translating terms specific to DVS The solution has eliminated confusion that might arise from differing translations of key terms.
The outcome: Millions to be saved & a major leap forward in tech-powered inclusion
Today, the state’s virtual agent represents much more than a convenience tool. Not only has the solution sped up service times and unburdened staff — it has advanced the social progress of the state. And, it’s setting an example for other state departments as they look for ways to better service residents.
“Today, we celebrate an evolution in communicating — one that will connect our residents in ways we simply haven’t seen before this language project.”
— State Commissioner, Department of Public Safety
After launching, user sessions on the new system reached 140K+ in just six months, showing strong adoption that will continue to increase as the platform improves and learns from its interactions. And, based on cost modeling of how the solution will impact call volume and staffing — the client determined that making the virtual agent its primary contact mechanism would yield $10M in annual savings.
The state’s CIO reflects on the success of the initiative: “When we can use technology to be a digital connector of people, we create closer communities … we understand better how the services that we provide should continue to evolve.”
What’s on the horizon
Future plans include a strategic rollout of dozens of additional languages — from Vietnamese and Russian to Persian, Chinese, Arabic and more. Insight is proud to have been chosen as one of the state’s primary development partners in launching the initiative and stands ready to continue helping the state drive mission-critical outcomes.
In a world where technology can widen gaps, Insight and the state have come together to bridge language barriers, democratizing access to essential services for all residents. For us, the collaboration is a testament to the power of innovation, empathy and partnership in creating a more inclusive society.
