BATAVIA, Ohio — Village officials have added an AI-powered chat assistant to the municipal website, giving residents a way to ask plain-language questions about services, permits, meetings and departments instead of digging through pages of menus.
The tool went live on bataviaoh.gov behind a chat icon, according to a post from the Village of Batavia. Residents can type a question and receive an answer without searching the site manually.
The assistant is designed to stay within the boundaries of Village business, the Village said. For time-sensitive material, such as upcoming council agendas, it directs users to the official page rather than attempting to answer directly.
“Part of Council’s ongoing work to make Village information easier to reach,” the Village said in its post announcing the tool, adding that it is soliciting resident feedback to refine the assistant’s answers over time.
Batavia, the seat of Clermont County government, is home to about 2,000 residents and operates under a mayor-council form of government. Mayor C. Scott Runck was sworn into office at the start of his term in January 2024.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Village of Batavia’s Facebook page.