Antonia, the first virtual public servant in Romania

The city hall of Cluj-Napoca has “hired” the first virtual public servant in Romania. Her name is Antonia and she is …a robot directed by a soft with the aim of cutting the red tape in the local administration.

More precisely, it’s an artificial intelligence project, through which the locals and file online requests at the City Hall, thus saving 40% of their time.

Cluj-Napoca mayor Emil Boc explained how Antonia works:

“We won the title of the national digitalization capital last year, as we are the city with the most digital procedures in Romania. We have over 52 procedures in the relation with the citizen. Now we have a new one, the first virtual public servant in Romania, called Antonia, who, in a first stage, will receive online requests. There are 60 requests that the Cluj residents can file online, from home, from their PCs, without having to come to the City Hall. Antonia will instantly give the requests to the heads of service, who have to solve the petitions. They will send citizens an email, as coming from Antonia, with a registration number whose tracking statute can be checked on the city hall’s website. Thus, the citizen will save 40% of the time he has wasted so far for filing the request in person,” mayor Boc told RFI.

The mayor explained it is the first stage of the project, but a second one will follow, which will involve a hologram.

“In the second stage, Antonia will also have a form with which citizens will be able to interact with, in order to pay local fees and taxes, or to get other information. The public servant will work 24 hours in 24 for the citizen, will not have only 8 hours of activity. Citizens will be able to pay their local taxes anytime during the day or at night,” the mayor added.

Cluj mayor has asked the Government to amend the laws so that the digital signature should be recognized in the relation between citizens and public authorities or among institutions.