Webinar Recap: How Midland, Texas Built a 24/7 Multilingual Citizen Concierge

Residents calling their city government expect answers. Too often they get hold music, wrong departments, and transferred calls that go nowhere. The cost of that failure is measured in frustrated taxpayers and burned-out staff.

In a recent webinar with Smart Cities Connect, Dr. Steven Serra walked through how the City of Midland, Texas deployed Jackie, an AI-powered civic concierge built on ElevenLabs.

The session covered what broke down before Jackie existed, how the city evaluated and implemented the solution, and what the results look like in practice.

Why AI Support Matters For Governments

Government call centers are not falling behind because staff do not care. They are falling behind because the workload is becoming difficult to manage at scale with human agents alone.

Midland operates across 11 call centers. Before Jackie, a resident with a general question might get transferred two or three times before reaching someone who could answer it. This was a system design problem.

There was also a financial case:

1. Midland has handled 7,490 calls through Jackie at 35 cents per call
2. Hiring additional staff to absorb that volume would require not just salary and benefits, but physical space the city did not have.
   

The challenge they faced was not unique.

The shift ElevenLabs is seeing across government clients is from deterministic flows and IVRs to agents that can handle open-ended questions.

A resident does not always know which department they need. Jackie does not require them to know. She handles the routing, answers what she can, and transfers when a human is genuinely needed.

Demo 1: Jackie Handles A Billing Question And Transfers

Scenario: A resident calls Jackie with a confusing water bill and asks to be connected to the right department.

What was shown:

1. Jackie greets the caller, identifies as an AI assistant
2. Understands the billing issue immediately
3. Offers to transfer directly to utility billing
4. Completes the transfer with a live handoff
   

Why it matters: The interaction takes seconds. There is no hold queue, no wrong department, no repeated explanation of the problem. Jackie identifies intent, confirms the action, and executes. That is what a good first line of response looks like.

Demo 2: Jackie Handles Multi-Topic Questions

Scenario: A resident asks about pet adoption, then shifts mid-conversation to ask about becoming a city vendor.

What was shown:

1. Jackie answers the animal shelter question with specific details including adoption fees and events
2. When the resident pivots topics, Jackie follows without losing context
3. Jackie begins walking through vendor registration requirements

Why it matters: Real conversations do not stay on one topic. A resident calling about one thing will often have a second question. Jackie handles topic shifts naturally because she is not running a fixed script. She is working from a knowledge base and responding to what is actually being asked.

Best Practices for City Governments Exploring an AI Agent

1. Understand your processes. If your internal knowledge base is outdated or siloed, the agent will reflect that. Get your SOPs documented and agreed upon across departments first.
   
2. Treat your knowledge base as a living document. As laws change, forms change, and processes evolve, someone needs to own the updates. Designate a single source of truth and build a workflow around maintaining it.
3. Do not launch all at once. Midland is in a transitional phase. Jackie currently handles overflow and after-hours calls, not the primary phone tree. A phased rollout lets you build trust internally and with residents before going full scale.
   
4. Involve your IT and security teams early. Midland worked closely with their IT department and information security personnel throughout procurement. SOC 2 certification was a baseline requirement. ElevenLabs met it. That check matters before anything else gets evaluated.
   
5. Do not let it become a forgotten project. Jackie is actively maintained. Dr. Serra's team continues to make modifications post-launch. The agent improves because someone owns it.
   

Watch the full session

Watch the full session here.