Thursday, April 29, 2021

Markham's COVID-19 Virtual Assistant continues to keep community safe

MARKHAM, ON – April 29, 2021 – On this day last year, the City of Markham became Canada’s first municipality to leverage IBM Watson™ Assistant for Citizens when it launched Markham’s COVID-19 Web & Telephone Virtual Assistant to respond to the rapidly evolving global pandemic.

“At the City of Markham, innovation is what we do best and we were proud to partner with local tech champion, IBM Canada on the virtual assistant that has provided residents and businesses with quick and reliable information on COVID-19 and City services,” said Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti. “Since its launch one year ago, the virtual assistant has successfully provided thousands of residents with important COVID-19 information and has allowed the City of Markham to diversify the ways in which we communicate to the public.”

This innovative tool was launched at the height of the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 to provide reliable, consistent and accurate information about the deadly novel coronavirus and impacted City services – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The virtual assistant combines IBM Watson Natural Language Understanding capabilities with IBM Watson Discovery technology to understand and respond to common questions about COVID-19. It also draws information daily from the City of Markham, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ontario Ministry of Health and York Region Public Health websites.

Markham’s COVID-19 Virtual Assistant is constantly learning and being trained through machine learning to improve answer quality with each user session. For the past year, the City has leveraged this AI technology to gain insights and adapt its COVID-19 emergency response and recovery communications to meet the ongoing needs of the community.

On July 8, 2020, the COVID-19 Virtual Assistant was also added to the Access Markham mobile app, making it even easier for the public to access reliable and up-to-date lifesaving information anywhere, anytime – from any device. In order to make this solution accessible to more residents, the COVID-19 Virtual Assistant can also be accessed by phone at 1.833.926.0929.

Quick facts:

14,545 web and mobile chats have occurred
Highest traffic continues to occur following major provincewide announcements related to restrictions changes, vaccination updates, etc.
Highest weekly traffic occurred in early April 2021, as the Province of Ontario entered its third State of Emergency and second Stay-at-Home Order
The most common questions are related to vaccines, testing locations, impacted City services and the status of events

Markham is at the centre of Canada’s second-largest technology cluster and is a City of research and innovation, world-class talent, entrepreneurial spirit, and collaborative action. The Corporation of the City of Markham is no exception, as it continues to innovate and provide exceptional services to its residents, businesses and other stakeholders. In 2020, the City of Markham was named by the Intelligent Communities Forum (ICF) as one of the Top7 intelligent communities globally.

Since the launch of the COVID-19 Virtual Assistant, the City of Markham has shared its insights and case study at various industry events and conferences, including Technicity Conference 2020 (organized by IT World Canada), IBM’s Virtual Conference and Canada’s 14th Annual Municipal Communicators Conference. Sharing lessons learned, key wins and the innovation around the COVID-19 Virtual Assistant’s expansion, the City of Markham acts as a model for others to follow and helps stop the spread of COVID-19. We are all in this together.

To protect yourself and others from COVID-19, please continue to follow public health recommendations before and after you receive your vaccine. It is critically important that we each continue to do our part to keep one another safe. It is not the time to let your guard down. Every action counts.

Related links:

IBM Watson 1 Year

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Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti's Office:
Bryan Frois, Chief of Staff at bfrois@markham.ca or 416.567.1177.

All other media inquiries / interview requests for the City of Markham:
Jennifer Yap, Coordinator, Communications and Media Relations at jyap@markham.ca or 437.229.2450.

For COVID-19 announcements from the City of Markham:
Visit markham.ca/covid19 or listen to 105.9 The Region – Markham’s information and emergency radio station.

About Markham: Markham, an award-winning municipality with more than 351,000 residents and the largest of nine communities in York Region, is home to over 650 headquartered companies and more than 1,500 high tech and life science companies. Markham is a leader in attracting foreign direct investment with more than 234 foreign companies located in the City. Founded in the 1790s, today Markham is Canada’s most diverse community and enjoys a rich heritage, outstanding community planning and services, and a vibrant local economy.

Stay Connected: Visit our newsroom or search #MarkhamNews and #MarkhamEvents for the latest information on City programs, services and event.