The Digital Government Development Agency (DGA) plans to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the government's effectiveness, including a chatbot platform that can respond to people's queries.
The chatbot platform for state agencies is set to be launched in May and some 200 state units are expected to use it this year.
The DGA also indicated it plans to launch an auto tag or Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system by the end of this year to help categorise complaint messages automatically in real time.
These moves are aimed at creating a data-driven e-government backed by AI technology, in line with the country's draft plan for digital government development between 2023 and 2027.
Supot Tiarawut, executive director of the DGA, said the agency has been pushing for the digital transformation of 56 local administrative organisations (LAOs) since last year, driven by cloud-based solutions. The agency wants the LAOs to thrive using digitalisation and more easily deal with public service operations during the hardship brought about by the pandemic.
The 56 LAOs were in the first batch of more than 7,000 tambons and provincial administrative organisations across the country selected to receive digital solution assistance.
Mr Supot said an AI-based chatbot platform was initiated earlier this year in the sandbox stage, with 20 state-run units adopting the system on a trial basis.
"The DGA will officially launch the chatbot platform in May and expects 200 state-run units to use chatbots this year," he said.
The chatbot platform has been developed with the use of a semi-automated question-and-answer learning model that facilitates communication between humans and computers via real-time messaging, said Mr Supot.
The DGA also developed the Artificial Intelligence for Performance Audit system as a tool for information search and analysis in a fast and precise fashion, he said.
According to Mr Supot, the ASR system will combine big data analytics and machine learning technology to develop a prototype that can automatically categorise complaint messages sent to various state agencies.
"The auto tag platform is expected to be launched this year to ease procedures concerning complaint message management," he said.
The DGA already established a government AI centre to support AI usage among agencies, aiming to improve work efficiency and productivity.
The agency is now hosting the International Conference on Digital Government Technology and Innovation to showcase innovation and digital tech in the government sector.
A total of 26 academic and research papers are slated for presentation at the two-day event, which concludes today. The conference is at the Novotel Bangkok Sukhumvit 20.
Mr Supot said these papers are to be included in the International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers database, and some of the selected papers will be published in the Journal of Intelligent Informatics and Smart Technology.
