AP18:142
For Immediate Release
September 20, 2018
Contact:
SOS Press Office
(916) 653-6575
Secretary of State’s Eureka Chatbot Awarded Best of California Award by the Center for Digital Media
SACRAMENTO, CA – The Center for Digital Government presented the California Secretary of State with the Best of California Award for its Business Programs Division’s Eureka Chatbot. Awarded for Best Application Serving the Public, the Eureka Chatbot, developed in partnership with Microsoft, answers frequently asked business entity and trademark questions, helping to better serve approximately 400,000 customers who contacted the agency last year.
“We are proud that our Eureka Chatbot was recognized by the Center for Digital Government for making it easier to do business in California,” said Secretary of State Alex Padilla. “Californians can get answers to their business related questions instantly using Eureka’s artificial intelligence. This is another example of what is possible when innovation and public private partnerships meet. I congratulate our Business Program and IT divisions for their work bringing this project to fruition.”
Through Eureka, customers can ask questions like “How do I check my business filing status online?” and they will be linked to the California Business Search website where they can look up their business record and access documents for free. Eureka responds best to short questions or keywords. The California Secretary of State is the first state-level Department or Agency to use Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence and bot services to modernize and create efficiencies when providing services to customers.
The Eureka chatbot assistant is part of Secretary of State Padilla’s Digital Initiative to modernize and digitize the agency’s divisions, including the Business Programs Division. The Digital Initiative includes an online LLC and Corporation Statement of Information filing tool, an online LLC Formation filing option, an online trademark and service mark filing tool, 11 million searchable business records through California Business Search, an updated search engine for the state’s successor-in-interest claims, and a Starting a New Business resource page. All of these tools can be easily found at bizfile.sos.ca.gov.
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