However, PIPA is the agency's first standalone bot, meaning it can be used across multiple government agencies. Crucially, the bot can be embedded within web and mobile apps, as well as within third-party personal assistants, such as Google Home and Alexa.  According to Keenan, the gang of five digital assistants released so far by the DHS have answered "more than 2.3 million questions, reducing the need for people to have to pick up a phone or come into a service centre for help.” “This is what our digital transformation program is all about – making life simpler and easier for all Australians.”

uman Services has a number of public-facing chatbots already. The newest of them is ‘Charles’, launched last year, which offers support for the government’s MyGov service.Others include ‘Sam’ and ‘Oliver’, both of which launched in 2017. The department’s customer-facing digital assistants have so far answered more than 2.3 million questions. Human Services also uses a number of staff-facing chatbots. In November Keenan revealed that the department had launched an Augmented Intelligence Centre of Excellence, which the minister said would boost collaboration with industry, academia and other government entities.

The federal government has decided that all Commonwealth entities would benefit from having a chatbot, with the Department of Human Services (DHS) announcing it was working on the development of one that will be ready by the end of 2019.The Platform Independent Personal Assistant -- PIPA -- is expected to "significantly improve the customer experience for users of online government services", according to Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation Michael Keenan.

new data provided by the Department of Human Services showed that almost half of all pension applications received last year were not processed within the timeframe set out in their Key Performance Measure standards