"Digital Assistant" now available on gov.cy

The "Digital Assistant", the Cypriot public sector's first Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) application, is now operational on the government portal gov.cy.

The purpose of this tool is to facilitate more direct and faster communication between citizens and the state by providing information on issues of concern 24/7. Citizens can submit their queries in both Greek and English, and questions can also be typed using "Greeklish" characters.

In its initial pilot (beta) version, the Digital Assistant will be able to assist citizens only with matters related to Social Insurance Services. Additional thematic areas will gradually be added to expand the content it can handle.

As an AI-powered tool, the Digital Assistant will continuously train, evolve, and improve through conversations and interactions with users to better meet their needs.

Citizens can submit their questions either in writing or verbally, and the Digital Assistant will provide answers in a simple, clear, and friendly manner, ensuring an optimal user experience. The interaction time for each citizen with the system is limited to five minutes per session.

The Digital Assistant responds to general questions, meaning it does not require personal information such as the citizen's name, age, or address to provide answers.

The Digital Assistant is based on Microsoft Azure OpenAI technologies and has been implemented in accordance with the Microsoft Responsible AI Standard, ensuring transparency, fairness, and respect for user privacy and data protection (GDPR). The content it uses has been trained on documents provided by government departments/services and is up to date at the time of use.

It is important to note that interacting with the Digital Assistant does not constitute interaction with a human. The Digital Assistant is exclusively informational in nature, and its answers should not be considered official advice or opinions from the relevant authorities.

(Photo: Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou, PIO)