This article is intended for: Financial Engagement Admin Users with the AI Chatbot enabled.
Use this article to: manage the AI Chatbot on your Financial Engagement Website and review Analytics.
What is the Budget Assistant?
The AI Chat Bot is a resident-facing assistant on your Financial Engagement website that lets visitors ask plain-language questions about your budget and get a written, sourced answer back without digging through a PDF themselves.
How the Chatbot Works
The Financial Engagement Budget Assistant can be set up for you by your Implementation team. The AI Chatbot is driven by a specific budget report or document, such as a Budget Book or ACFR. The chatbot answers only from that source document and cites the specific section that provided the answer.
- Pro Tip: Choose the source document deliberately; it defines exactly what the Chat Bot can answer. A complete and adopted budget document is recommended.
Note: The AI Chatbot is only available for specific subscription models, so check with your ClearGov Point of Contact to learn more.
Which Questions Can Residents Ask?
Residents type open-ended questions in their own words, for example:
- "Where does [Agency] get its money?"
- "What does [Agency] spend the most on?"
- "How does this year's budget compare to last year?"
The Chat Bot replies with a structured, written answer, and footnotes the specific source it drew from (for example, a "Budgeted Expenditures by Activity" schedule or the budget's cover page). Every answer carries a standing disclaimer along the lines of: "Answers are from the official budget materials. Always verify with the source."
The Chat Bot also includes:
- A "Download budget report (PDF)" link, so residents can go straight to the source document
- A language selector, so non-English speakers can get answers translated
Note: Because the Chat Bot answers only from the document you uploaded, it won't answer questions your budget document doesn't cover. See the next section for additional information on Unanswered Questions.
Review Chat Bot Activity
Once the Chat Bot is enabled, an Assistant Activity dashboard appears under Analytics. This is where you see what residents are actually asking.
- Inside of Financial Engagement, navigate to Analytics
- Select Assistant Activity
- Then, to review the history, set the Start and End dates for the period to filter.
Key statistics
- Total Conversations: how many chat sessions residents started
- Questions per Session: how deep those conversations went
Themes
Topic Themes group resident questions into recurring subjects, with a toggle between two views:
- Answered Questions: the key themes the Chat Bot was able to answer
- Unanswered Questions: the themes the Chat Bot was not able to answer
Pro Tip: The Unanswered view is the more actionable of the two: it's a running list of what your community wants to know that your budget document doesn't address. Use it to decide what to add to your FAQs page, cover in an Update, or address in next year's budget document.
Interaction log
The Interaction Log is a question-by-question record showing Date, Question Asked, and AI Response Status.
Filter by All Questions, Answered Questions, or Unable to Answer, or search for a specific term to see whether residents are asking about it.
Additional Resources
Check out our other training resources to learn more:
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