You may have noticed our website’s search bar has a new look. Our new “Ask Fairfax” Generative AI chatbot is designed to help you quickly find information across fairfaxcounty.gov.
Like other AI chatbots, “Ask Fairfax” draws answers from Fairfax County websites and shares information in an easy-to-read, conversational format. It’s similar in style to tools like Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude, but focused exclusively on county information so you can get answers from trusted sources.
“If Fairfax County is to remain a leader in local government, we must be willing to challenge longstanding processes, modernize how we serve our residents, and build the bridges necessary to connect where we are today with where we need to be tomorrow,” says County Executive Bryan Hill. “One of those bridges is the introduction of new technologies that improve how residents interact with their government. Ask Fairfax supports our Countywide Strategic Plan's focus on efficient, effective and customer-centered service delivery. With strong support from the Board of Supervisors, this demonstrates our willingness to embrace the tools of the 21st century to better serve the residents, businesses and visitors who rely on Fairfax County Government every day.”
You can ask the chatbot questions such as, “How do I pay my taxes?” or “Adopt a dog,” and it will guide you to the right services and resources. The chatbot is multilingual, so you can search for information in different languages. The county website contains thousands of pages and documents, so if an answer is helpful or not helpful, users are encouraged to click the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icons in the chat experience to provide feedback.
“Ask Fairfax is the type of thoughtful innovation that we must pursue to create the Fairfax County of the future,” says Matt Harrison, director of Information Technology. “Generative AI allows us to make government simpler to navigate, more accessible and more responsive to our residents while rooting that experience in trusted county information and appropriate safeguards. Just as important, Ask Fairfax lays the groundwork for our larger customer portal vision – helping us move toward a more connected, intuitive and seamless digital experience for residents seeking county information and services.”
Ask Fairfax replaces our previous “Fairfax Virtual Assistant,” but traditional search is still available. You can continue to use the “Search our site” field located to the right of the “Ask Fairfax” area.
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