TSA Contact Center Virtual Assistant

Overview

Development stage

In development or acquisitionSource: a) Pre-deployment – The use case is in a development or acquisition status.

High-impact designation

Not high-impactSource: c) Not high-impact

Impact justification

Not reported

Start date

Not reported

Withheld from public reporting

Not reported

Mission

Topic area

Service Delivery

Operational functions

Chatbot or virtual assistant, Public-facing customer service Derived by keyword rules; see methodology

Problem the AI is intended to solve

The AI use case is designed to enhance customer service accessibility, improve operational efficiency, and provide valuable data insights to support TSA's mission and decision-making processes: 1. Limited Accessibility and Availability: The chatbot addresses the challenge of providing timely and accessible responses to public inquiries, especially outside the TSA Contact Center's operational hours. 2. Increased Demand for Customer Support: By automating responses to routine inquiries, the chatbot mitigates the strain on TSA staff caused by growing demand for customer support. 3. Resource Constraints and Fiscal Responsibility: The chatbot reduces the need for additional human resources to handle routine inquiries, thereby improving operational efficiency and fiscal responsibility. 4. Lack of Data-Driven Insights: By capturing and analyzing customer interaction data, the chatbot enables TSA to gain insights into customer needs, improve public information, and prioritize innovation and transformation efforts. 5. Consistency and Accuracy of Information: The chatbot ensures that responses to public inquiries are consistent, accurate, and aligned with the TSA's knowledge library.

Expected benefits

The three goals for TSA's Virtual Assistant Chatbot are: 1. Enhanced Accessibility and Timeliness: By providing immediate responses both within and outside the TSA Contact Center's (TCC) operational hours, the Virtual Assistant improves ease of access for the public seeking answers to common questions. 2. Data-Driven Innovation and Transformation: The chatbot captures customer inquiries, providing valuable data to inform innovation and transformation priorities across the agency. 3. Improved Fiscal Responsibility: Leveraging automation to address increasing demand mitigates the need for additional resources, thereby enhancing fiscal responsibility.

System outputs

As a predictive AI capability, the TSA's Virtual Assistant chatbot functions by correlating existing content within the TCC's knowledge library with the NLP to identify the most relevant knowledge articles for user queries. It does not generate original content. However, the system records transactional data related to customer interactions, including inputs, outputs, and topic classifications. This consistent data capture, mirroring existing email and phone channels, enables TSA to gain critical insights for customer experience improvement efforts, identify areas for public information enhancement, and understand the demand for specific services.

Technology

AI classification

Natural language processingSource: Natural Language Processing: AI that processes, interprets, and shares information in human language.

System name(s)

Not reported

Custom-developed code

Not reported

Public source code

Not reported

Sourcing

How it was built

Not reported

Vendor (as reported)

Not reported

Vendors (standardized)

None on the standard list

A vendor is the supplier named by the agency. It does not identify the underlying model or AI technology.

Data and privacy

Involves PII

Not reported

Privacy Impact Assessment

Not reported

Authorization to Operate

Not reported

Demographic features

Not reported

Training and evaluation data

Not reported

Federal Data Catalog

Not reported

Governance

0 of 8 minimum-practice questions answered. A blank answer means the agency reported nothing; it does not mean the practice is absent.

Potential impacts and how they were identified

Not reported