City court officials in Austin used to spend a lot of time answering rote questions related to parking tickets, court dates and other issues. Then about two years ago, the city began using a chatbot to field these requests. The move made life easier not only for workers in the court system, but also residents. "They had a challenge with individuals coming down, asking questions about paying tickets," explained Austin CIO Stephen Elkins during a panel discussion last week at the Smart Cities Connect Conference in Denver. "And so, what the court basically was finding was that they had a long line of individuals -- some folks had questions about tickets, some had other questions. By pulling out the ticketing questions, they shortened the queue. There was a better experience with the residents as well as the employees," Elkins added.