🤔 What is the Community Assistant?
The Community Assistant is GovWell's AI chatbot designed to help you find the answers to common questions about permits, applications, and municipal processes You can think of it as a virtual help desk to help you with questions you would normally ask your local government staff and through the entire journey on GovWell from start to finish. The Community Assistant is available 24/7, so you don't have to wait for regular business hours to make a phone call or visit your local government office.
Along with answering your original question, the Community Assistant may offer suggested follow-up questions as clickable buttons during your inquiry to help you explore further.
🔑 Key Features
These features are available for any municipality that has opted into using the Community Assistant feature for their community.
Available 24/7: If your municipality or county has opted into this feature, the Community Assistant is always accessible from your municipality's website or GovWell public portal, acting as a virtual help desk for your jurisdiction.
Trained on local requirements: The Community Assistant is configured and trained to respond to questions based on official sources from your jurisdiction, such as training documents, municipal codes, and other local materials. This helps the Community Assistant analyze your questions and provide an accurate answer based on the jurisdiction from which you're applying.
Context aware and page-aware context: The Community Assistant automatically determines the correct context based on which page you are navigating within GovWell. For example, if you ask a question while filling out a form, the Community Assistant will detect which form you are using and respond according to the sources that relate to that form. Furthermore, the Community Assistant is aware of the contents of the page you're looking at and it can answer questions specific to what you're seeing, such as which steps you need to take to upload revised plans.
Provides clickable links: When answering your questions, the Community Assistant will respond directly with clickable links to provide the correct forms and resources for faster follow-ups and faster routing into the right application.
Human in the loop: If the assistant cannot answer a question, it directs you to the appropriate contact person at your local jurisdiction.
Available in any language. The Community Assistant is available in over 80 languages and can automatically detect your language to respond with the appropriate context. The assistant can also translate any page or form into your native language.
❓ What can the Community Assistant help me with?
The Community Assistant is trained to help you with a large variety of questions and tasks. Here are some of the most common requests it can help you with!
1. Finding the right form
Not sure which permit or application you need? The Community Assistant can help guide you to the correct one!
2. Understanding requirements
Ask what documents, attachments, or information you need to submit with your application and what type of information each field requires
3. Checking your application status
Ask about the current status of a permit or application you've submitted, including what's pending or what next steps are expected.
4. Fee information
Get details on fees associated with permits or applications.
5. Municipal codes and regulations
Ask about local codes, zoning rules, or violation codes relevant to your area.
6. General GovWell navigation help
If you're not sure where to find something in the portal, the Assistant can point you in the right direction!
7. Contact information
Ask about the right point person or staff member for additional questions or inquiries.
🔍 Where can I find the Community Assistant?
The community assistant can be accessed at any time from three different locations:
💻 In-app
Whenever you're logged to the GovWell app, find the Community Assistant embedded on the top left and top right corners of the screen.
🏛️ Your organization's Public Portal
On your organization's Public Portal, the Community Assistant can be found at the center of the page, above the available Online Services.
💬 Floating chat button
Our Community Assistant can also be found as a floating chat button embedded on your local government's website. Look for the button below on the website to start a chat!
💡 Want to learn more about GovWell? Check out our guides here!