8×8 is looking to help boost voter turnout in the UK’s regional and national elections with a new voice and digital chat service for public sector organisations.
8×8’s Ballot It! is an AI-powered self-service solution that aims to provide UK citizens with relevant election information. The cloud contact centre and unified communications platform provider said the solution integrates into an organisation’s contact centre and existing websites.
Ballot It! is powered by the conversational AI capabilities of 8×8 Intelligent Customer Assistant. It is engineered to ensure the electorate in each region has real-time access to relevant up-to-date information around candidates and polling stations, while also relieving local government staff and volunteers of a number of election-related tasks, easing their workloads, said the company.
“From the moment an election campaign begins—regardless of it being a general election or local election—there’s a lot of extra pressures, requests, and demands placed on councils,” said Darren Davies, IT user support manager and technology adoption manager at London Borough of Harrow Council. “So anything that helps with that while also helping the electorate is to be welcomed.”
If you liked this content…
“In many parts of England in the recent elections, turnout was lower than previous years. With the UK general election coming up very soon, and Scottish and Welsh elections in around two years, vendors, like 8×8, have a role to make sure technology is being seen as a helper and not a hindrance,” said Jamie Snaddon, EMEA managing director at 8×8, Inc.
“We developed Ballot It! to support local government efforts to encourage voting, as we believe it’s important to ensure that every citizen is given the resources they need to make informed choices and exercise their right to vote on election days.”
The top value of deploying AI is to enable organizations to provide customers with quick responses to inquiries while at the same time increasing employee productivity.
The 8×8 cloud contact centre and unified communications platform supports councils including City of Westminster Council, Liverpool City Council, Sefton Council, and London Borough of Hounslow.
