North Dakota’s government websites now have an AI assistant – her name is Dakota BOT – to assist visitors with finding the information they’re looking for.
Tricia Miller is digital systems manager at the North Dakota Department of Commerce. She says a chatbot was first launched on the North Dakota Tourism website back in 2023 as a way to steer them in the right direction. She says they knew they eventually wanted to expand this service system-wide. Dakota BOT was eventually transitioned and launched earlier this year on the Commerce website, and today it is now fully operational on www.nd.gov. She says it will help assist visitors with information across all sites, especially after work hours.
"A lot of questions we get right now, it's been heavy on - 'what's there to do in North Dakota,' and questions about winter, the weather, things like that. Now during the voting and that kind of thing - lots of questions on that. Also about hunting, the timelines of that. And another question we get is, updating your drivers license... a lot of DOT information."
Miller says the system was built simply and operated with a minimal cost. And she says users are encouraged to verify and double check the information given to them by the chatbot. She says transcripts with Dakota BOT are deleted after 30 days, and that the state of North Dakota will not be selling any user data of anyone who uses the chatbot. And users can still use email if they wish to be contacted by a person at the state of North Dakota.
