City of Las Vegas looks to build high-tech relationship with Amazon’s Alexa

One of the newest city of Las Vegas employees won’t shake your hand, but she’ll answer your questions.

The city’s information technology department has been building an application for the Amazon Echo, a voice-controlled artificial intelligence speaker named Alexa, as part of a broader effort to allow residents to access city services in new ways.

The Echo’s voice that talks back to users responds to Alexa (similar somewhat to Apple’s Siri) and will allow people to download an application and interact with the city through the voice-controlled technology.

City Director of Technology and Innovation Michael Sherwood gave the device several prompts during a presentation to the Las Vegas City Council this week. Alexa was asked to introduce herself to the council, a specific sewer bill balance and an inquiry about who represents one of the city’s wards on the council.

The city’s platform will be ready in 2017, and will eventually allow residents to inquire about city services in a more automated but customized way — like asking Alexa about the status of a permit or application with the city. The device sells for about $180.

Ultimately, citizens will be able to create a profile by logging into the city’s website and personalizing the way they interact, whether that means a business license, notifications about when their council representative is having an event in their neighborhood or which parks have certain recreational opportunities.

“We are forging way ahead of most cities, even cities that have more resources than we do,” said Development Services Systems Manager Rick Virmani.

Building the infrastructure for this came through the city’s four-year, multi-million dollar Project EDDI, or Electronic Development Department Integration, aimed at using technology to make city services more seamless, user-friendly and gadget-connected for customers.

The goal is to allow citizens to approach city services as a one-stop shop, where they can pay sewer bill and permit fees at the same time.

“Can she come to my house and make my husband a Bombay Sapphire?” Mayor Carolyn Goodman inquired of Alexa, referring to her husband Oscar’s favorite gin martini. Not quite yet, Mayor. A repeated question about a specific city park flummoxed the device at Wednesday’s meeting.

But when asked who the mayor of Las Vegas is, the device knew not only Goodman’s name, but the year she was elected and the percentage of the vote she drew.

The city’s IT department has been building the platform and plans to publish it through Amazon. The expected launch of the new personalized capabilities for citizens the council saw Wednesday is in six to eight months.

The city’s interface has been submitted to Amazon and is in the application store right now, in what Sherwood characterized as a “fledgling state.” The plans call for the new capabilities to be phased in.

Plans also call for the city to be able to use the application internally. For instance, managers could use it to ask how much vacation time a certain employee has left, or the state of their departmental budget.

The new capabilities appeared to pique the interest of a couple City Council members, who said they were excited to start playing around with the new functions.

The city launched its new website this spring, and has a mobile application with tabs for everything from job postings and service requests to parking locations and food trucks.

City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tempore Steve Ross pointed to the city’s recognition for sustainability, and said he hopes the technological trail-blazing continues.

“I want to be the highest tech city in the world, too,” Ross said.