Implementing specific Covid-19 information chatbots

This compendium, prepared by the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), aims to capture emerging trends in digital responses of UN Member States against the COVID-19 pandemic along with other digital government initiatives and provide a preliminary analysis of their main features. These cases are shared for exchange of information so that Member States can learn from each other and possibly create new partnerships.

In order to multiply and diversify its communication channels and respond to French citizens’ demands for information on Covid-19, the Government’s Information Service (SIG) decided to implement innovative digital solutions, in partnership with innovative companies/startups: - A chatbot dedicated to answering French citizen’s questions about Covid-19 on Facebook Messenger was created and implemented, with the innovative startup Clustaar. - A similar chatbot was implemented on WhatsApp (with the company Infobip).
- An automatic notification system was created via the Chrome browser to notify of changes in the government’s official instructions (with the startup Batch).

Country

France

Institution

Government's Information Service