The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) is now using a generative AI chatbot in its call center production environment to bolster workforce efficiency.
The new technology will allow CDTFA workers to parse through the enormous amount of tax and fee policy to better answer calls from the public. Unlike some other chatbot implementations that focus on connecting website users with information and resources, this tool will allow call center workers to retrieve information while keeping a “human in the loop.”
Thor Dunn, chief of the CDTFA call center, told the Sacramento Bee that the implementation of the tool was completed Aug. 22, after having been launched and tested in a simulated environment last year. In March 2025, CDTFA began introducing the chatbot in the production environment.
“The simulated environment did show some potential to save at least one and a half percent time on some of those calls,” Dunn told the Bee, adding that the time saved would equate to around 100,000 minutes when applied to the 800,000 calls it receives each year. Put another way, that time savings would free up staff to take another 10,000 calls each year.
The assistant provided by SymSoft Solutions was selected through the state’s Request for Innovative Ideas (RFI2) procurement model, which included four other pilots geared toward exploratory uses of generative AI technology in other departments.
Those other pilot projects include the California Department of Transportation will be investigating near misses and traffic fatalities, as well as use cases for generative AI to address roadway congestion and traffic management. The California Department of Public Health pilot is looking at expediting health-care facility inspection documentation. And the California Health and Human Services Agency is using the technology to improve benefits and language access.
For CDTFA, the assistant technology will help staff sort through more than 16,000 web and policy pages across the 42 tax and fee programs, Dunn told the Bee.
“This will help search that material or that information a lot faster than they could with your standard computer searches and bring up possible answers to customer questions much quicker than you could on your own,” he said.
The push to use and provide guardrails for generative AI in state government extends all the way to Gov. Gavin Newsom's office. In late 2023, Newsom signed an executive order that laid the groundwork for the Government Operations Agency, the California Department of Technology and others to begin identifying appropriate use cases for the technology across government.
The Department of General Services has been adapting the state's buying processes and policy requirements around the emerging technology.
CDTFA Moves GenAI Assistant Into Call Center Production Environment
The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration has taken the next step in its implementation of a generative AI assistant to help its call center workers manage about 800,000 calls each year.
