ICS.AI helps Cheshire councils manage Covid-19 queries

ICS.AI helps Cheshire councils manage Covid-19 queries
AI-based digital assistant provides instant virus information from reliable healthcare resources

Elly Yates-Roberts |


Microsoft partner and artificial intelligence (AI) start-up ICS.AI is helping Cheshire West and Chester Council to manage Covid-19 queries from the public. The AI-based digital assistant provides instant information about the virus from reliable healthcare resources.  

ICS.AI created a specific Covid-19 skill for the Cheshire councils’ digital assistant and has since deployed a new COVID-19 Assistant which provides public sector organisations with a mechanism for employees and citizens to “self-serve” information and actions.

“[We] decided we wanted to build a specific coronavirus skill to add to our AI Digital Assistant in order to help customers get through the emergency phase of their coronavirus mitigation plans,” said Martin Neale, CEO of ICS.AI. “For obvious reasons, it had to be available quickly. Fortunately, we were able to use the thousands of Coronavirus questions from Chester’s chatbot to both populate and train the assistant, providing one of the most comprehensive resources in the country. 

“The coronavirus skill we have developed is quite sophisticated. It has a priority store of hundreds of voice-ready answers and can fall back on multiple trusted and curated knowledge sources such as the council’s own website, the World Health Organization, NHS 111, and Public Health England. Clients can also optionally create and manage their own dedicated local coronavirus knowledge store.”

The COVID-19 Assistant is now available for deployment to all organisations. 

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