The Bureau of Fiscal Service has launched two pilot projects focused on blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies to improve customer experience, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.
The bureau’s Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation intends to deploy AI to support “chatbot” or virtual assistant features to automate customer support and improve access to Department of the Treasury services.
Jennifer Hill, management and program analyst at FIT, told the publication that her office wants to deploy best practices in the private sector and enable acess to the AI-based feature from the web as well as mobile devices.
“Where we sit within the government at Treasury, there’s many opportunities to really explore how an agency interacts with us, and how that might change how citizens interact with us, and how that may change and how any other entity like a bank is also interacting with Treasury,” noted Adam Goldberg, executive architect at FIT.
The Treasury Department component also collaborated with the National Science Foundation to use blockchain to promote transparency in grant payment procedures.
According to Craig Fischer, a program manager for FIT, the blockchain effort is focused on tracking mobile phones as well as software licenses to improve visibility in transaction flows.
