Bots, AI and Cognitive Services terms and conditions

Newcastle City Council is committed to providing a high-quality customer service. We are actively exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Services tools to enhance our customer experience.

Currently we have the following live “Bot” deployments:

• WasteBot
• Adult Social Care Virtual Advisor (ChatBot)
• Fostering and Adoption

We are using Microsoft LUIS (Language Understanding Intelligent Service) which is a cognitive service from Microsoft.  LUIS allows us to build up models to draw out intent and entities from conversation strings.  LUIS begins active learning once deployed and will re-use data in order to improve itself.  All of the models are held within the EU.

Our design principles dictate that the following data will not be run through cognitive services:

• Any data which Newcastle City Council responds with
• Customer responses to message requests for sensitive personal information

Information submitted to the above services may be repurposed to further enhance our services and be used to improve customer experience.

Your data may be used to inform you of service changes.

By continuing to use the services provided by Newcastle City Council listed above, you acknowledge that you are in acceptance of these terms of use and of Microsoft Licensing terms.  Details of Microsoft Licensing terms can be found here.

Current text based services

We want to increase the number of text based services available to customers. We will update this page with information on text based services when they become available.

Whoson Live Chat

We have added a Whoson Live Chat which allows users to chat directly with members of our Fostering and Adoption team. Details of their GDPR compliance can be found on their website.

Text services for waste:

• Permit – apply for a permit to use a van or trailer at a Household Waste Recycling Centre
• Update – update permit details or vehicle registration
• Visits – check available visits remaining
• Days – check your next household waste collection
• Sites – see the addresses for Household Waste Recycling Centres
• Close – cancel permit