A System That Simulates Conversations, Answers Questions, And Refers Requests to the Competent Authorities.. A Study at UoB Develops a Smart System That Can Communicate With E-Government Customers

Sakhir – University of Bahrain – Mansoor Al-Wani
13 January 2022
A study at the University of Bahrain (UoB) has developed a smart system (the smart employee), through which it is possible to communicate with e-government customers in the Kingdom of Bahrain, through real simulation between humans.
This system works with artificial intelligence technology, and has the ability to directly respond to all received calls, answer questions, and take action, then direct requests to the competent authority in institutions and bodies within the government.
The smart employee project – which was presented by the student Latifa Mohammed Al-Abbasi to fulfill the requirements for a master’s degree in cybersecurity at the College of Information Technology – is characterized by the ability to communicate with the call center clients in the e-government, by simulating the conversation process like any human employee, with the ability to fill out forms, schedule appointments, and speak in both Arabic and English. Also, the project is characterized by smart capabilities that include providing security features to provide privacy for customers, and keep their information confidential, in line with the laws and regulations in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Moreover, Al-Abbasi said: “This study comes as part of a comprehensive project currently being developed with the Information and e-Government Authority, which aims to develop a unique and secure infrastructure that achieves the greatest level of security and confidentiality requirements and controls in the chosen cloud model, and covers all levels of security protection, of providing security systems to protect the network, storage environment, and operational systems, in addition to providing them with system software, achieving a secure environment for applications, personal data, user identity, access management, and ensuring a service level agreement”.
The researcher reviewed the mechanism of the virtual employee’s operation, by using a number of techniques such as: machine learning technology (ML), deep learning (DL), natural language processing platform (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU), and natural language generation (NLG), to understand how the components of the designed structure interact, and their real-time interaction with users.
Also, the researcher used natural language processing feature and deep learning technology, which allow the possibility of learning by understanding questions and responding to them through the generation of a natural language.
The researcher hopes that the project phases will be completed, from implementation, follow-up, and monitoring of the project’s progress, followed by the performance evaluation process, and the efficiency of the smart employee to enhance the project and improve it in the future.
The discussion was attended by the Acting Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President of Electronic Transformation at the Information and e-Government Authority, Dr. Zakaria Ahmed Al-Khaja, who praised the student’s initiative in developing this scientific study, stressing that it is in line with the vision of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the objectives of the Information and e-Government Authority.
The discussion committee consisted of Dr. Mazen Ali Muhammad, Associate Professor in the Department of Information Systems, as an internal examiner, and Dr. Saeed Sharif, from East London University in the United States, as an external examiner. While the study was supervised by Dr. Wael Mohammed Al-Madani, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering, and Dr. Nabil Mohammed Huwaihi, Professor of Computer Science at UoB.

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