Amarillo, Texas, also known as the Yellow Rose of Texas, is a staple in what Texas is all about. Sure, it isn’t a big city like Houston, Dallas or San Antonio, but it boasts that iconic Texas culture.
Locals and visitors alike walk through the Polk Street Historic District to explore local shops, restaurants and galleries within Amarillo’s historic buildings. They can visit the museum at the American Quarter Horse Association, or they can take in the sights of nearby Palo Duro Canyon. And, at the end of the day, they can take on the 72-ounce steak challenge (if they dare to) at the iconic Big Texan Steak Ranch restaurant.
After seeing what’s offered, there’s no doubt Amarillo is Texas personified and is considered one of the best places to live. Still, that doesn’t mean the city should stop making improvements to make livability for its residents, and visitors, a better experience.
That is why the city and Dell plan to create an online digital assistant that uses generative AI to provide residents with details on government and city services. This means that Amarillo can take advantage of the digital assistant to address common citizen and visitor questions around topics such as park facilities, waste management and other nonemergency information. Website visitors can ask the assistant a question in multiple languages and instantly receive relevant information.
"Our goal is to build a connected and engaged community that can foster a more prosperous future for the citizens of Amarillo," said Richard Gagnon, chief information officer, the city of Amarillo. "The AI tools we develop with Dell help create more effective government in the digital age and give us new tools to improve civic engagement and outcomes."
The digital assistant is designed with the city's identity, tone of voice and knowledge to fulfill common citizen inquiries. It uses Dell PowerEdge R760xa servers, which are built for a wide range of uses like AI, machine learning and deep learning and training and inferencing these applications.
The servers allow the city to render the onscreen image of the digital assistant and manage the data in the city's large language models and generative AI applications.
"Dell Technologies is well positioned to help customers and organizations bring AI to their data and improve access to important information," said Alexander Keller, chief technology officer for services, Dell. "Our collaboration with the city of Amarillo will provide its residents with an accessible, interactive and multi-lingual digital solution that quickly guides them to the resources they need."
Approved in August by the Amarillo City Council, the digital assistant is expected to be available to Amarillo residents in early 2024.
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
