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SEAmore Voice: Expanding Access to Civic Services Through AI
This case study highlights SEAmore Voice, a collaboration between the City of Seattle and Gooey.AI. SEAmore is a multi-lingual voice based AI agent connecting Seattle residents to city departments and answering common questions. The case study offers a replicable model for cities, municipal governments, and public service organisations seeking to integrate AI into public service delivery.
The City of Seattle is the official municipal government serving residents, businesses, and visitors across the city. Its administration provides essential civic services, public information, and digital resources that support community engagement, economic activity, and access to city departments and programs.
Theory of Change
The Problem of Navigating City Services
The context
The City of Seattle (USA), one of the 5th fastest-growing cities and the 18th largest city in the United States, serves a rapidly expanding and diverse population. As the city grows, residents must navigate a highly fragmented system of civic services, with over 100 different city phone numbers and more than 32,000 miscellaneous calls handled each year.
For many residents, identifying the correct department or point of contact is unclear, leading to repeated calls, misrouted inquiries, and frustration while seeking city support.
For many residents, identifying the correct department or point of contact is unclear, leading to repeated calls, misrouted inquiries, and frustration while seeking city support.
Language barriers in a multilingual city
Seattle is home to a linguistically diverse population, yet many residents face significant barriers when attempting to access city information and services in their preferred language. Limited language support can result in misunderstandings, delayed access to services, and unequal outcomes, particularly for immigrant and non-English-speaking communities.
The need for a unified digital front door
A large volume of non-emergency calls and general inquiries consumes substantial staff time across city departments, diverting resources from higher-priority or more complex cases. This operational strain highlights the need for a unified digital front door that can triage inquiries, route residents to the appropriate department, and improve service efficiency.
Background and Needs
Fragmented access to city services
Seattle’s Customer Service Bureau manages approximately 32,000 miscellaneous calls each year within a citywide volume of nearly 400,000 annual calls. With more than 100 different city phone numbers in circulation, residents often struggle to identify the correct point of contact, leading to misrouted calls, delays, and an inefficient service experience.
Routing barriers to effective service
Seattle’s linguistic diversity presents additional challenges for effective service delivery. Limited multilingual support and unclear call routing make it difficult for residents to access accurate information quickly, particularly for non-English speakers, highlighting the need for more accessible, intelligently routed communication channels.
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Interventions & Process
Designing a trust-first, multilingual AI agent
Gooey partnered with the City of Seattle to design and build SEAmore, a multilingual, voice-based AI assistant that connects residents, visitors, and businesses to over 40 city departments while answering common civic questions. The AI agent was intentionally trained to only answer from a defined, city-approved knowledge base to ensure accurate, up to date answers. We ensured that the agent was aligned with public-sector standards for trust, accountability, and transparency.
Integrating AI with existing call routing
To support operational effectiveness, Gooey integrated SEAmore with the City’s existing call-routing infrastructure and exported call data into an AWS-based analytics hub. This enabled the City of Seattle team to track, routing gaps, and continuously iterate, and refine the AI agent’s knowledge base. We also enabled support for the 15 most common languages in Seattle.
Enabling rapid deployment
Using Gooey’s low-code platform, the City of Seattle moved from concept to field deployment in just twelve weeks. Collaborative workspaces allowed team members to iterate in parallel, while forking workflows, refining prompts,and testing changes. This approach democratized AI creation within the city of Seattle team, built internal capacity, and accelerated AI adoption.
Outcomes
An equitable digital door for all residents
Gooey enabled the City of Seattle to build SEAmore by providing the AI tools and a collaborative, low-code orchestration platform. The AI agent supports a diverse, multilingual community while unifying more than 100 disparate city telephone numbers into a single, accessible digital front door, thus making it easier for residents to find the right service quickly and confidently.
AI driven service improvement
SEAmore enabled the City of Seattle to export all inputs, outputs, and contextual conversations into its AWS-based data hub, creating a comprehensive view of customer journeys. This allowed the City to analyze how residents entered the digital front door, how calls were routed across departments, and how the knowledge base could be continuously refined, thus improving accuracy, efficiency, and public trust over time.
"The Gooey team was outstanding. Genuinely helpful, patient, and clearly committed to our success. Their passion and support were evident throughout the process. We’re walking away with a much clearer picture of how AI technology could be integrated into our organization.
We especially valued the connection to the Gooey community, which offered peer learning and support."
City of Seattle Team
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