Singapore Government Teams with IBM in Pilot to Tap on Watson to Provide More Insightful and Personalised Advice to Citizens

SINGAPORE, 14 October 2014 – The Government of the Republic of Singapore and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a collaboration that envisions to improve accessibility to Government information by tapping on IBM Watson to deliver better and more personalised service on government policies and services.

As the world’s first Watson adoption in the government sector, this initiative supports the Singapore Government’s mission of enhancing government-citizen interactions and community engagement. By providing government agencies with insights about the concerns and priorities of their constituents, Watson will enable better decision-making and more responsive operations. This leads to improved government services, as well as better citizens’ engagement in community programmes and compliance with civil obligations.

In the first phase of the government-wide initiative, The Government of the Republic of Singapore will team with IBM to train the Watson-enabled natural language solution in the areas of personal income tax, employment and work pass, and workplace health and safety.

When the pilot project goes live next year, users can access the Government websites using the self-service applications and gain more specific answers to their queries more quickly from the Watson cloud-based solution.   Watson has the ability to recognise the intent of users’ requests, and this enables the government representatives – or the users themselves in self-serve use cases – to better navigate the government services, uncover the specific need, and provide personalized advice. As the Watson learns, it allows the government agencies to better understand the needs and priorities of their constituents.

“The Singapore Government is constantly seeking ways to improve its service delivery and how it engages the public. We hope the collaboration with IBM to tap on their leading Watson technology will bring about a transformative change in how the Government can better interact with citizens and address their needs,” said Ms. Lim Soo Hoon, Permanent Secretary (Finance)(Performance), Ministry of Finance.    “As Singapore is transforming itself into a smarter city and a global city of excellence, IBM is proud to be supporting the Government in providing improved public services through Watson that empowers the citizens with faster and better insights. This initiative will act as a catalyst for other countries, who share a common vision of improving how we work and live on this smarter planet,” said Janet Ang, country general manager, IBM Singapore.

The IBM Watson Engagement Advisor is a first of a kind system designed to help customer-facing personnel assist consumers with deeper insights more quickly than previously possible. Delivered through cloud-delivered services and online chat sessions, IBM Watson will empower a brand’s customer service agents to provide fast, data-driven answers, or sit directly in the hands of consumers via mobile device.

Watson learns like a human from the vast quantity of information provided by the organisation, and from its interactions with the trainers and users.  After training, the new solution is able to understand a subject and question, and provide data-based answers within seconds to users’ queries. As a result, this will improve user satisfaction and ensure consistent user experience, while decreasing the call load for the organisation’s call centres.

For more information visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/41122.wss

IBM Watson: Pioneering a New Era of Computing

IBM Watson represents a new era of computing, in which apps and systems interact with human users more naturally, augment our knowledge with Big Data insights, and learn to improve how they assist us.

Fueled by innovation from a mission to transform industries and professions, Watson is uniquely positioned at the forefront of the new era of computing, evidenced by an unmatched demonstration of what cognitive systems can bring to transform decision- making. IBM is delivering a range of cloud-based products and services to clients in industries such as banking, healthcare, insurance, retail and education.

For more information on IBM Watson, please visit: www.ibmwatson.com

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