Queensland Treasury Becomes First State Government Department in Australia to Roll-out Nuance-powered Virtual Assistant

Office of State Revenue deploys Nuance conversational AI solution, virtual assistant ‘Sam’ enabling simple, tailored self-service

BRISBANE, Australia--()--Nuance Communications Inc. and the Office of State Revenue (OSR), part of Queensland Treasury, have today announced the launch of virtual assistant ‘Sam’ across all OSR revenue lines. Using Nuance’s AI-powered solution, it’s the first Australian state government implementation of the conversational virtual assistant.

Sitting on Business Queensland and QLD Online websites, Sam provides a conversational interface that allows clients to ask general questions about OSR’s services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Using Nuance’s natural language understanding (NLU), conversational dialogue and advanced resolution techniques, Sam provides more than 300 tailored responses, with thousands of variations to commonly-asked questions across payroll tax, duties and grants, land tax and mining and petroleum royalties. Sam can also direct taxpayers to relevant information on OSR’s web pages.

Deputy Commissioner for OSR, Simon McKee, said, “With Sam, we have provided another channel for our taxpayers to easily access information, 24/7.”

“Sam saves taxpayers time by delivering information in a simple, conversational way and reduces the need for them to search for information on our web pages. Sam marks a further step in our commitment to meet or exceed our taxpayers’ expectations” said McKee.

Managing Director for Nuance Enterprise, Australia and New Zealand, Robert Schwarz said, “Conversational AI has completely transformed the way consumers engage, providing endless opportunities for government to provide best-practice digital customer experiences. More than ever, Australians are expecting seamless digital client experiences from the private and public sector alike.”

“Nuance’s AI systems listen, learn and deliver progressively better outcomes by leveraging big data and human input to emulate live agents. Through this learning loop, we can deliver enterprise-grade solutions, empowering organisations, including government, to provide optimal experiences for Australians. Nuance Nina ensures consistent and intelligent automated conversations with human-like dialogue” said Schwarz.

OSR launched Sam in February 2018 to help OSR’s client gain answers to simple tax questions 24/7. Since then, Sam has logged more than 5,000 client interactions – with over 71 per cent of enquiries being resolved at the first contact.

To interact with Sam, please visit www.qld.gov.au/payrolltax.

For more information about Nuance’s Nina, please visit: http://australia.nuance.com/for-business/customer-service-solutions/nina/index.htm.

About the Queensland Office of State Revenue
OSR is part of Queensland Treasury. We are responsible for managing State taxes and royalties, and administering the Queensland First Home Owners’ Grant. The revenue we collect provides about $17 billion in income for Queensland to fund essential services including for education, health and infrastructure. For more information, please visit https://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/taxes-and-royalties/

About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. is the pioneer and leader in conversational AI innovations that bring intelligence to everyday work and life. The company delivers solutions that can understand, analyse and respond to human language to increase productivity and amplify human intelligence. With decades of domain and artificial intelligence expertise, Nuance works with thousands of organisations – in global industries that include healthcare, telecommunications, automotive, financial services, and retail – to create stronger relationships and better experiences for their customers and workforce. For more information, please visit australia.nuance.com.au

Trademark reference: Nuance and the Nuance logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts

Australian Media Contact:
Burson-Marsteller, on behalf of Nuance Communications
Matea Rojas
matea.rojas@bm.com | 0433 442 728

Contacts

Australian Media Contact:
Burson-Marsteller, on behalf of Nuance Communications
Matea Rojas
matea.rojas@bm.com | 0433 442 728