July 12, 2023
By Eunice Sigler and John Holtzclaw
Trends in State Courts 2023 features an article entitled SANDI: Improving Court Access and Service in Miami with an Advanced Artificial Intelligence Chatbot. SANDI, an acronym for Self-Help Assistant Navigator for Digital Interactions, greets website visitors to the Miami-Dade Courts website. The artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced chatbot was added by the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in Miami in July 2022.
SANDI can understand both English and Spanish. The chatbot can respond to user requests multilingually in both typed and spoken modes. It helps website visitors find commonly requested information such as judicial directories, courtroom Zoom ID numbers, and case information. A key difference with other chatbots is that SANDI is supported by an AI (machine learning) engine that grows the database to increase the chatbot’s repository of information. The AI engine uses free-flow conversation and context awareness, helping users navigate the website using Natural Language Processing.
Juan Carmenate of the Family Courts Self-Help Program said before SANDI went live in July 2022, they averaged around 950 live chats every month. Afterward, there was a steady decline in live chats, especially as more knowledge was added by staff to the SANDI chatbot over time. He said that they average about 55 live chats a month, a 94 percent reduction.
Judge Nushin G. Sayfie attests that SANDI works 24/7 and has allowed court staff to devote their time to other more advanced tasks, as well as serving the public through furthering access to justice. There is a handoff between the chatbot and live assistants to make sure no requests are abandoned even when the courts are not open. SANDI places user questions in sequence so that staff members can access them the next business day. During SANDI’s first month of operation in July through August 2022, 3,545 unique users interacted, while a few months later, a total of 4,961 users made use of SANDI.
In over a year, SANDI began service with a knowledge base of 35 question-answer pairs with an active knowledge base of 826 questions. Through interactions with the Miami public, SANDI has synthesized answers to 120 more questions and continues to expand. Another phase of SANDI’s deployment will be to add specific knowledge bases for more court divisions. Creole is also planned as a third language.
Is your court utilizing chatbots to help more users? Share your experiences with us at Knowledge@ncsc.org or call 800-616-6164. Follow the National Center for State Courts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.