In 2021 the federal leaders recognized a problem with citizen experience on federal websites. As a result, Executive Order 14058 was released dedicated to improving citizen services for federal technology.

However, a 2023 McKinsey & Company report states the average score for federal services is only 31%.

Justin Fessler from Yext appears on the Federal Tech Podcast to offer some insights on how to improve the citizen experience, especially as it pertains to search. Everyone has laughed at the misleading results that a search engine gives. Everyone has opinions.

It is one thing when you search for some obscure historical fact, and another when you are looking for a tax ruling.

During the interview, Justin Fessler observes that much of the information citizens require may be sitting in a data store somewhere in the agency. He suggests that generative AI can be applied to these data sets to provide answers more easily and in the context of the user.

One concern that is expressed by everyone is the “black box” nature of generative AI. How can you trust the answer from a faceless system? Justin Fessler provides the answer: citations. In the Yext search platform, stacks of data are searched quickly, and citations are offered for the answer.

Improving citizen experience means documents can be retrieved for important ranging from legal to emergency services.

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