Natural conversation
Residents say what they need in their own words. There’s no phone tree to memorize and no “press 1” to sit through.
Citizen Self-Service
Answer every resident, day or night
A self-service phone line that picks up on the first ring, can communicate in every major language, and is trained to answer questions about your office. Elections, permits, utility bills, office hours — and it layers onto the phone system you already run.
When the calls surge
Your busiest weeks are already on the calendar
The busiest stretch for your office isn’t Election Day. It’s the weeks before it, answering calls that overwhelmingly ask the same three questions.
“Am I registered?”
“Where do I vote?”
“How do I get a mail-in ballot?”
Each one is answered from your office’s own records — registration status, the polling place matched to where a resident lives, and how your jurisdiction handles mail-in ballots. The line reads back what you have published; it never interprets election rules, and it never discusses candidates, parties, or a resident’s affiliation.
What a resident hears
An illustration of what a call would look like when nobody’s in the office. The line is our AI Concierge, answering from the records your office connects to it.
Resident · 9:04 P.M.
“I want to check whether I’m registered to vote.”
AI Concierge
“Happy to check. What’s your name, street address, and date of birth?”
Resident
“Ana Reyes. 412 Oak Street. March 6th, 1978.”
AI Concierge
“Thank you. The county’s records show an active registration in your name at that address.”
Resident
“And where do I vote?”
AI Concierge
“Your polling place is Lincoln Elementary, 1200 Field Avenue. It’s open seven in the morning to seven at night on Election Day.”
Resident
“What if I’d rather vote by mail?”
AI Concierge · 9:05 P.M.
“The county takes mail-in ballot requests online or by post. I can text you the request form and the deadline your office has published.”
3 answers, 1 call, 1 minute.
The call is resolved without involving a staff member. In the morning, your team sees it in the log, not the queue.
Where your team’s day goes
County and city offices take the same call over and over: a resident asking for information the office has already published. Open 311 data mostly records service requests, so the calls that only needed a simple answer leave little trace.
Where someone has counted, the share is large. San Antonio’s 311 department puts information requests at 56% of its calls.
Source: San Antonio Report, August 2026, reporting the city’s 311 department.
A line that answers, not a menu that routes
Your data, read back
Every response comes from information your office publishes and controls. We make it reachable by phone. We don’t author it, and we don’t interpret it.
Open when you’re closed
2 A.M. on a Sunday works the same as 10 A.M. on a Tuesday, so after-hours calls stop going to voicemail. Residents who work during the day never have to take time off to ask a question.
Every major language
Real-time translation, so a resident more comfortable in another language gets the same answer.
Weeks, not quarters
There’s no platform to rebuild, so an office can be answering calls before its next surge peaks.
- 1
Pick the questions
We talk through the questions your team spends the most time answering, and separate the repetitive ones the line can handle from the ones it should hand off to a person. You don’t have to cover everything to get most of the relief.
- 2
Connect your data and your line
We wire it to the records the answers come from, and to the phone system you already run. Your current call flows keep working while we do it.
- 3
Go live and widen
It starts answering, you watch what it handles and what it hands off, and you add subjects from there.
Computer Instruments has built the voice systems public offices and contact centers run on for 47 years. Long enough to know the fastest project is the one that doesn’t replace anything.
The calls don’t stop after Election Day
You handle the election spike and keep a 24/7 resident front door for good. In a county office or a city hall, the same line works for whatever your residents call about most — the routine calls a 311 line takes.
- Hours, locations, departments
- When the office opens, where it is, and which desk handles what.
- Permits, licenses, inspections
- What a permit costs, what to bring, and where an application stands.
- Utility and tax billing
- Balances, due dates, where to pay, and what happens if a payment is late.
- Benefits, programs, services
- Eligibility basics, what to bring to an appointment, and where to find a form.
- Council and board meetings
- When the next meeting is, what’s on the agenda your office has published, and where the minutes are posted.
Questions offices ask us
Can the line handle voter registration, polling place, and mail-in ballot questions?
Yes, provided your office enables access to that data. Once a resident submits the required identifying details, the line confirms their voter registration status, provides their specific polling place, address, and voting hours, and guides them through the local mail-in ballot process. It simply reports your official records — it does not interpret election laws, nor will it ever discuss candidates, political parties, or party affiliations.
Where do the answers come from?
Your office. Every response is read back from information you publish and control — your hours, your fee schedule, your records. We make that information reachable by phone; we do not author it or interpret it.
How is resident information handled?
Your office stays in control of what the line can reach. It answers from the records you connect it to, says back only what you allow, and never decides on its own what a resident is entitled to know. Disclosure requirements differ by state, and we follow the law and regulation that applies in your jurisdiction on whether a caller is told they are speaking with an AI system. The specifics of data handling we work through with your IT and security staff before go-live.
How long does it take to stand up before an election?
Weeks, not quarters. There is no platform to rebuild, so most of the work is deciding which questions to answer first and connecting the line to your data. We will scope your real timeline on the demo, and tell you honestly if that timeline is not realistic for you.
Do we have to replace our phone system?
No. The self-service line layers onto the phone system you already run. Your numbers, routing, and carrier stay where they are, and nothing gets torn out to make it work. When the line cannot answer something, it hands the call to your team rather than dead-ending the resident.
Does it work outside election season?
Yes, and that is where most of its value is. The same line answers hours, permits, utility and tax questions, program eligibility, and council and board meeting agendas all year, with real-time translation in every major language. Election season is simply the busiest stretch it handles.
Layers onto the phone system you already run
Your numbers, your routing, and your carrier stay exactly where they are. No platform to migrate, no procurement to replace the whole system. The only thing that changes is what a resident hears when the line picks up. Learn what it means to modernize your IVR without replacing it.
Start answering every resident
The first call is twenty minutes. You’ll leave it knowing which of your most common calls the line can take, and how soon it could be answering them.
