DAVISON TWP. -- The board of trustees put a hold on a proposed contract with a municipal customer service company to offer a chat support agent for residents calling the township at its Dec. 9 meeting.
Ian Hennessee with Muni AI (artificial intelligence) gave a presentation to the board about the company's mobile app which can direct phone calls to various departments while offering up other contact and service information to callers.
He said for an inquiry about the Davison Public Library, for example, the app could bring up the hours of operation for the library and a Google map with directions.
It could even direct a phone call there for someone who has called the township offices instead.
The AI can route callers to not only the library, but to the township's trash hauler or other organizations associated with the municipality.
The other avenue is through voice calls, answering some calls and routing others to the proper numbers if the app has access to that information.
"For anything the voicemail software can't help them with directly, it goes into a ticketing platform," Hennessee said. "If it can sense the matter is urgent or they know which department it goes to, it will automatically assign it to those people by a text message on their phone, they will receive their text or phone number so they can contact them."
If the matter cannot be assigned directly, it will go into an open ticket que and the proper management system can assign it based on what they hear in the phone call.
For anyone without a cellphone to answer the query, it can also be sent by email.
Supervisor Jim Slezak said on garbage pickup day, for example, the township sometimes gets phone calls from people who's trash was not picked up my Emterra, the trash-hauler.
"Say they put their garbage out, but maybe they didn't put it out in time, and the truck went by," Slezak said. "This will take the call right to (Emterra) giving them the issue right away."
Hennessee said the township would have to provide all of the information it wants included in the app.
Treasurer Travis Howell asked if each department would be responsible for determining what information goes on the app and what doesn't.
Hennessee told him the township could have as much or as little information available on the app, depending on what it thinks makes the most sense.
"So, it's unlimited the number of departments we could technically have," Howell said.
Trustee Lori Tallman asked if there were other municipalities who are using the app, to which Hennessee replied there is not.
Howell said he has a very basic experience with AI and is curious from the township side of things how many calls coming in staff is missing - both during business hours and after hours.
Slezak said most of the missed calls are after hours and weekends.
Howell questioned whether a demonstration of the app would be possible before the board were to commit to anything.
Hennessee said weekend demos could be arranged to see how it goes.
Clerk Michael Leffler said he too would like to do a trial basis, possibly with just one department like garbage, rather than locking in for a three-year contract at $15,000 a year.
"That seems pretty expensive to put in when we're not really sure how much we're going to use it," he said. "We lock in something for three years and we find out we're only using it for five garbage calls every Tuesday afternoon."
Slezak suggested a month trial basis and have the board decide at its Jan. 13 meeting whether it is willing to commit.
Howell asked if the administration has looked at any other AI programs, noting there are others out there which might be less costly.
"Just to get other option just to see and compare and contrast," he said. "See if we can find other municipalities to talk that use it."
Trustees Matt Karr and Lori Tallman both shared some hesitance to approve the MUNI-AI app for the township's use.
"I'm not willing to spend $15,000 a year for something like this," Karr stated.
Tallman said older residents she's talked to prefer talking to a person instead of AI, adding many residents don't even know the township has a dropbox, let alone how they would receive a cellphone app with AI.
"I don't know that we have a need for it right now," she said. "I'd prefer that we look at this before spending the money."
The board said nothing in response to Slezak's questions about having a trial run with the app, Howell stating he'd rather talk to other municipalities that are using AI Chatbots for similar purposes before moving ahead with anything.