New 8×8 Ballot It! Self-Service Offering Empowers Citizens

8×8 has announced the availability of 8×8 Ballot It!, an AI-powered self-service solution that aims to empower UK citizens with the latest and most relevant election information and help boost voter turnout in regional and national elections.

A voice and digital chat service for public sector organisations that seamlessly integrates into their contact centre and embeds into existing websites, Ballot It! is powered by the conversational AI capabilities of 8×8 Intelligent Customer Assistant.

The new solution is intentionally engineered to ensure the electorate in each region has real-time access to relevant up-to-date information around candidates and polling stations, while also relieving local government staff and volunteers of a number of election-related tasks, easing their workloads.

“From the moment an election campaign begins-regardless of it being a general election or local election-there’s a lot of extra pressures, requests, and demands placed on councils,” said Darren Davies, IT User Support Manager and Technology Adoption Manager at London Borough of Harrow Council. “So anything that helps with that while also helping the electorate is to be welcomed.”

“In many parts of England in the recent elections, turnout was lower than previous years. With the UK general election coming up very soon, and Scottish and Welsh elections in around two years, vendors, like 8×8, have a role to make sure technology is being seen as a helper and not a hindrance,” said Jamie Snaddon, EMEA Managing Director at 8×8, Inc.

“We developed Ballot It! to support local government efforts to encourage voting, as we believe it’s important to ensure that every citizen is given the resources they need to make informed choices and exercise their right to vote on election days.”

The top value of deploying AI is to enable organizations to provide customers with quick responses to inquiries while at the same time increasing employee productivity.

The Benefits of Ballot It! Include:

• Empowered Citizens: 24/7 access to accurate information and resources about upcoming elections to enhance knowledge and manage voting preferences.
• Streamlined Resources: single access point for publicly-available information.
  Instant Self-Service with Customised Information: provides voters with links to specific local projects and candidate information via voice and digital channels.
• Enhanced Productivity: Reduces contact centre and staff workloads for councils and local governments with automated messages directing citizens to the relevant online resources.

Delivering Ballot It! reinforces 8×8’s understanding of the needs and pain points of the local government sector in the UK.

The 8×8 cloud contact centre and unified communications platform supports the constituent and employee experience requirements of some of the best known councils in the UK, including City of Westminster Council, Liverpool City Council, Sefton Council, and London Borough of Hounslow.

About 8x8

8x8 is transforming the future of business communications as a leading Software-as-a-Service provider of voice, video, chat, contact centre, and enterprise-class API solutions, powered by one global cloud communications platform.

Find out more about 8x8