Don’t let AI liability be your agency’s next crisis.
Generic AI chatbots hallucinate, create legal liability, and leave non-English speakers behind. Agency Chat is the safe alternative — every answer cites your official documents, in 72+ languages, with full accessibility.
You need efficiency, but you can’t afford the risk.
Municipal leaders are under pressure to do more with less. But deploying the wrong AI creates problems far worse than the ones it solves.
The hallucination trap
NYC’s chatbot told businesses they could serve food with rat bites. Air Canada’s AI invented a refund policy — and the airline was held liable. The UNC School of Government warns: if your AI lies, you are legally responsible.
Equity debt is growing
GovLoop warns that AI tools routinely exclude people with disabilities and limited English proficiency. The federal Section 508 program now publishes a chatbot accessibility playbook because so many fail. The result is “silent attrition” — your most vulnerable residents simply stop trying to engage.
Civic isolation
Georgia Tech research found that generic chatbots make residents feel “isolated” — like their issues disappear into a black box. Bad automation replaces human connection instead of protecting it.
“It should be obvious to Air Canada that it is responsible for all the information on its website. It makes no difference whether the information comes from a static page or a chatbot.”
The UNC School of Government puts it bluntly: “If a local government employee had a pattern of producing incorrect, harmful, or biased content, that employee would likely face eventual discipline and dismissal. Is it prudent to invest in a generative AI chatbot that poses these same risks?”
Clone your best staff member — one who knows every policy, speaks 72 languages, and never sleeps.
Agencies that deploy grounded AI see dramatic results. Not because the AI replaces people, but because it frees your team to do the work that actually requires a human.
Calls reduced in 6 months by a London council using grounded AI.
Return on investment achieved in the London case study.
Average time from kickoff to live deployment with Agency Chat.
Every answer grounded in your official sources.
Every single time.
Agency Chat uses Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) — the architecture recommended by the UNC School of Government — to search your documents and website simultaneously, and cites every answer so residents and staff can verify the information instantly.
Document Intelligence — The 'Air Canada' Fix
Your municipal code, policies, and administrative regulations are indexed and searchable. Every response links directly to the source. If it’s not in your official documents, we don’t invent it.
The UNC School of Government recommends you “test out publicly available chatbots that the vendor has already built for other local governments.”
Website Search — Always Current
Automatically crawls your agency website for the latest information on services, schedules, and programs. Dual-source search means nothing falls through the cracks.
Built to pay down equity debt, not create it.
University of Nebraska research found that text-only interfaces fail elders. GovLoop warns that inaccessible AI creates “silent attrition.” Agency Chat is designed from the ground up to serve everyone.
72+ Languages
Automatic translation for Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and dozens more. Questions are translated for search, answers delivered in the resident’s language.
Voice In & Out
Speech-to-text input and text-to-speech output. Seniors and low-vision users can speak their question and hear the answer read aloud.
WCAG 2.1 AA
Keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and high contrast mode. Section 508 compliance built in, not bolted on.
Privacy by Design
Built to help government agencies meet public records requirements. Monthly reports deliver each interaction's date, time, question, and response directly to the agency. No Personally Identifiable Information is collected, and all chat records are permanently deleted after delivery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Air Canada’s chatbot invented a refund policy that didn’t exist, and a tribunal held the airline liable. NYC’s chatbot told business owners they could serve food with rat bites and violate labor laws. The UNC School of Government cites these cases as warnings: if your AI gives bad advice, your agency bears the legal responsibility.
The UNC School of Government recommends that you “test out publicly available chatbots that the vendor has already built for other local governments.” We agree. Try our live City of Oakland deployment at askoakland.ai right now — ask it anything about Oakland’s municipal code, zoning, or city services. We also use RAG architecture, multi-layer safety guardrails (including adversarial query detection), and we design the system to say “I don’t know” rather than guess.
Yes. Agency Chat is built with WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, including keyboard navigation, screen reader support, high contrast mode, and text-to-speech for answers. This directly addresses the “Equity Debt” that GovLoop warns about — where inaccessible digital tools exclude the most vulnerable residents.
The opposite. Georgia Tech researchers found the key is design: by automating routine questions (trash schedules, parking rules, permit requirements), your staff is freed to spend time on complex issues where human empathy and judgment matter most. Agency Chat handles the routine so your team can build better community relationships.
Costs less than one part-time staff role — and works 24/7.
A single department typically spends $60k–$100k per year answering routine questions. Agency Chat is a fraction of that, with no lock-ins, no per-seat licensing, and no hidden fees.
Base Subscription
$1,495/month
Fully functional site that shows its work.
- 10,000 AI interactions per month
- 5M DeepL or 6M Google translated characters
- Full document & website search
- AI answers with citations
- Your own subdomain
No enterprise drama
No multi-year lock-ins, no per-seat licensing, no hidden implementation fees, no vendor negotiation theater. Cancel anytime.
Need more capacity?
Additional AI interactions from $17.50/1,000 (prepaid) or $25/1,000. Translation from $25–$30/1M chars (prepaid) or $30–$40/1M chars.
Usage is metered monthly. Prepaid credits are consumed first, then overages are billed in arrears.
Governance, risk, and the AI frontier
Mar 23, 2026
The Governance Gap in Municipal AI
Governance under pressure: when institutional input yields no institutional output — March 23, 2026…
Read more
Mar 17, 2026
AI Liability Is the New Public Records Risk
Governance under pressure: institutional uncertainty and the limits of administrative capacity | March 17, 2026…
Read more
Mar 9, 2026
Designing AI for Auditability
Governance under pressure: March 9, 2026 — when institutional systems operate without sufficient input, accountability frameworks begin to hollow from within…
Read more
Stop worrying about liability. Start serving your community 24/7.
See Agency Chat in action right now with the City of Oakland. Then start your 30-day live evaluation.