Customer Service · News · 🇧🇷 Brazil
Rio de Janeiro city hall has AI answer half the calls to its 1746 hotline
The AI handles the first level of phone service, understands what the resident needs, suggests the right service and passes the call to an agent with the context already logged.
- Profession
- Public Servant, Customer Service Manager
- Tools
- IA de voz
- Country
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- Report date
- February 6, 2026
- Verified on
- November 3, 2026
What they did
Rio de Janeiro city hall put artificial intelligence at the first level of phone service at its 1746 hotline. The AI picks up the call, understands the request, suggests the right service and, when an agent is needed, forwards the call with the context already recorded, which also standardizes the records. The team tracks how accurately the service is identified and the average handling time.
How it went
According to the city, the AI handles about half of the calls to the 1746 hotline. Accuracy in identifying the requested service rose from 39% in January 2025 to 81% in November 2025, and average handling time with AI involved fell about 20%, from 251 to 203 seconds.
Good to know
Accuracy started low and climbed over months of monitoring, so it pays to measure from day one. The numbers come from the city itself, on its Digital Government page.
The prompt
I work in customer service at [agency] and we have this list of services [paste the name and description of each]. I'll paste call transcripts [paste without personal data]. For each one, tell me which service on the list the caller is asking for, how confident you are, and write a two line summary for the agent who will take over the call. If the request doesn't match any service, say so instead of forcing a choice.
Replace what is in [brackets]. Prompt written by us from the account, not a literal copy of the source. Do not paste other people’s personal data (privacy laws such as LGPD and GDPR apply).
Summary in our own words. Results as stated in the original account; we have not tested or audited them. Read the source ↗ Found a mistake?
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