Chatbots as Part of Digital Government Service Provision – A User Perspective

Abstract

Chatbots are taken up as part of digital government service provision. While the success of chatbots for this purpose depends on these being accepted by their intended users, there is a lack of knowledge concerning user perceptions of such chatbots and the implications of these for intention to use. In response to this, an exploratory qualitative interview study was conducted with 15 users of a chatbot for municipality service provision. The interviews showed the importance of performance expectations, effort expectations, and trust. In particular, while a municipality chatbot supporting service triaging may be perceived as beneficial for their availability and to provide support navigation of municipality services and information, this benefit is compared by users to the benefit of other digital government channels. On the basis of the findings, we present key implications to theory and practice, and suggest avenues for future research.

The Human Likeness of Government Chatbots – An Empirical Study from Norwegian Municipalities

“…This is in line with previous findings in the context of customer service, where users have been found to appreciate chatbot human likeness even though humanlike characteristics are not considered key [13]. The relative lack of perceived importance of human likeness in government chatbots may be due to the highly goal-oriented user of such chatbots [1], which is in line also with the participants accentuation of potential efficiency benefits in the chatbot. Hence, while human likeness may be highly important in other chatbots [20], such as for example companion chatbots [34], this characteristic do not seem to be important to government chatbots.…”

“…Currently, chatbots are among the most frequently deployed AI applications in the public sector [36]. Within government service provision, chatbots have been taken up for a broad range of service sectors or areas such as health [31] and social services [37], and by broader service providers such as cities [35] and municipalities [1]. During the pandemic, the uptake of government chatbots saw a marked boost as part of pandemic response [3].…”

“…Makasi et al [26], in an interview study with users and designers of government chatbots, found that such chatbots were perceived to enable increased effectiveness and efficiency in service provision, while potentially also strengthening accessibility and ease-of-use for government services. Abbas et al [1], in an interview study with municipality chatbot users, found users to appreciate the navigation support provided by the chatbot and its potential for simplifying access to government information.…”