Caritas chatbot provides advice on financial worries
Lucerne/Horw - Caritas in Central Switzerland and poemAI GmbH have developed a chatbot that helps people with financial worries. CaritasGo provides multilingual information about government and non-governmental assistance programs, all tailored to each individual's personal situation.
«Social services meet artificial intelligence», is how Caritas Zentralschweiz (Central Switzerland) introduces a statement announcing its latest offering. The charity has teamed up with poemAI GmbH from Horw in the Swiss canton of Lucerne to develop a chatbot that provides multilingual assistance to people with financial worries in accessing government and non-government support services.
CaritasGo recognizes the language set by users in their browser and responds in the same language, even if the original information is only available in another language. During the interaction, the bot compiles information tailored to the user's personal situation regarding which services they may be entitled to and the counseling services that are available.
The chatbot, which is based on OpenAI's GPT-4o language model, is currently still in the beta phase and is only available in the canton of Lucerne, according to Caritas Central Switzerland. Once the current test phase is complete, CaritasGo will be rolled out across Switzerland. The chatbot will then be able to directly handle simple requests. In more complex cases, CaritasGo will provide initial guidance and refer users to the appropriate specialist service for personal advice.
