Watson helps cities help citizens – CognitiveBusiness

When citizens want to know when to put out recycling or alternate-side parking information, they often turn to their city's 311 information systems for help, making a phone call or searching the web for answers. For more complicated questions, many cities unfortunately still rely on systems that are antiquated and pieced together. But recently, the city of Surrey, British Columbia, made their 311 services a whole lot easier when they turned to artificial intelligence solutions. Launched in 2015, the mobile app helps citizens access information that was traditionally dispensed by a call center or websites. With their My Surrey app (nicknamed "Siri for Cities")– a mobile, cognitive computing application powered by IBM Watson -- the city can quickly answer citizens' frequently asked questions and reduce the cost of providing that service.