Council's Ask Tom digital assistant system 'leaves you feeling frustrated, confused and angry'

Newport councillor Peter Scott told a committee meeting that he had asked members of the public on his Facebook page what they thought of the council’s Ask Tom service.

“The response was that it was universally awful,” said Councillor Scott.

He also told last week’s meeting of the Communities Scrutiny Committee that “it worked quite well for me, but it depends on what you say.”

The councillor reported to his colleagues that a question about a tree meant being “sent all over the place".

“If you want to report a fallen tree you might as well talk to the wall,” he said.

Councillor Scott asked his Facebook followers on November 27 last year what their experience was of using Ask Tom.

“Money would have been better spent on employing real people,” said one. “Tom leaves you feeling frustrated, confused and angry.”

Another wrote: “I’ve used it, terrible, doesn’t have a clue what you’re on about, after god knows how long I eventually got a human who sorted everything in a couple of minutes.”

And a third of many responded by saying that they had found it an “absolute nightmare".

“I was trying to contact passenger transport, first he didn’t understand me, then I kept being passed to press this number or this number, gave up in complete frustration. Time wasting experience.”

The council’s Ask Tom digital assistant was launched in 2021.

As a digital assistant it cut customer waiting times by 50 per cent, whilst answering more than 13,000 residents’ queries and providing more than 100 services 24 hours a day.

In July 2024 Tom picked up the phone and by November it was attracting criticism.

Councillor Carolyn Healy told her Facebook followers that Tom isn’t designed to answer every enquiry, just the most commonly asked questions.

At that point Tom was handling 37 per cent of calls which she said was freeing up customer service staff to deal with the less common and more complex issues.

Last week’s Communities Scrutiny Committee heard that the council’s customer strategy is being ‘refreshed’ this year.

Members have been told that a new strategy is currently in development and would be considered at a cabinet meeting this April.

It will be focusing on how the council will continue to deploy AI technology to support customer experiences in the future.

But this would provide an ‘omnichannel’ access to council services to ensure residents are not digitally excluded.

Councillors have been told that feedback would be reported back to the relevant team to adjust the questioning prompts where needed.