CRA looking at AI, training to help call centre staff provide accurate answers

A senior official working at the Canada Revenue Agency says the agency is looking to artificial intelligence and better training to help call centre agents provide more accurate answers to taxpayers.

Melanie Serjak, an assistant commissioner at the CRA, told MPs on a standing committee Tuesday the agency is looking to roll out a more "senior and standardized" level of training and to introduce "automation" to improve the accuracy of CRA agents' advice to the public.

"We are looking at the artificial intelligence and other technology tools that will assist the agents in providing complete and accurate responses," Serjak said. "We are currently working with our vendor in that space."

After placing calls to the CRA's contact centres over four months this year, the office of Auditor General Karen Hogan found that CRA call centre staff answered just 17 per cent of individual tax questions accurately.

In a report released last week, Hogan said the CRA seems more concerned with adhering to employee schedules for shifts and breaks than with the "accuracy and completeness of information they provided to callers."

Hogan said there are "lots of opportunities" for the CRA to improve its performance through training or triaging calls.

Serjak said before an agent gets on the telephone, they go through anywhere from two to 13 weeks of in-classroom training, followed by weeks of live training on the phone alongside a more senior agent.

"From a training perspective, we are looking at rolling out a more senior and standardized level of trainer," she said. "We are looking at implementing in the very near future some automation around our quality review process to make it even more efficient and more effective for our quality evaluators to assist them."

The CRA has used a virtual chatbot called Charlie to provide automated responses to frequently asked questions.

Hogan's report said taxpayers are more likely to get an accurate response from the chatbot than from an agent.

"Charlie got it right 33 per cent of the time, so that's a little more accurate than reaching an agent and asking them a question about your personal taxes," Hogan said Tuesday. "I think it just highlights that there's a lot of room for improvement."

The auditor general's report found that nine per cent of agents' total performance evaluation score related to the accuracy and completeness of the information they provided to callers. It also found that 45 per cent of their performance evaluation score was tied to schedule adherence and the amount of time they spent handling calls.

"Such a small emphasis on accuracy does not prioritize quality service to callers seeking assistance," the report said.

On Sept. 2, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne set a 100-day timeline for the CRA to address call centre delays, with a deadline of Dec. 11. The CRA says it has since already surpassed its target of how many incoming calls it's answering.