{"id":418005,"date":"2026-01-18T20:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T20:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/418005\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T20:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T20:37:15","slug":"ask-a-needle-in-a-haystack-question-and-kitcheners-new-ai-powered-website-will-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/418005\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask a ‘needle-in-a-haystack question’ and Kitchener’s new AI-powered website will answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

If you’ve looked for anything on the City of Kitchener’s website over the last month, you may have noticed the search tool looks a little different. Perhaps, more conversational.<\/p>\n

That’s because the city is using the help of AI to improve the user experience when searching for information on its website. <\/p>\n

To do that, the city partnered with local tech company municiPal AI to enhance the search tool when the city launched its new website in December. <\/p>\n

“I think it’s a universal frustrating experience across the country to ask the city for something online,” Kristy Guthrie, CEO and co-founder of municiPal AI told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo’s The Morning Edition.<\/p>\n

“The nature of municipal websites is that they’re so big, they have so much information. That information is usually technical.”<\/p>\n

One month in, Guthrie says they’re seeing positive results with more than 90 per cent of searches being resolved with one query.<\/p>\n

Hillary Molinaro, a project manger who worked on the city’s new website, said more 7,800 searches have been done using the new search tool.<\/p>\n

“Residents are coming to our site and finding information about\u00a0community centres, pools, city events, winter maintenance, and more, in just one click,” she said in a statement to CBC News.<\/p>\n

Guthrie said hundreds of searches are also being done outside business hours when city staff aren’t available to help.<\/p>\n

WATCH | How does the City of Kitchener’s new search tool work?:\"\"<\/p>\n

Kitchener launches redesigned website featuring AI-powered search tool<\/p>\n

One month ago, the City of Kitchener launched a new website featuring an AI-powered search tool designed to provide residents with quick answers to their questions. The city partnered with local tech company municiPal AI to build the search tool. CBC K-W’s Diego Pizarro spoke to the company’s CEO and co-founder, Kristy Guthrie, about how it works and how it’s been performing.’You can keep talking to it’<\/p>\n

Guthrie said the search feature is set up so that people can have a conversation with it.<\/p>\n

“You can go in and say, ‘Best dog trails’ and it’s going to give you an answer based on what is available on the City of Kitchener’s website, but you can keep talking to it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You can have a conversation once you’ve made a search, which is a new way to engage with the city online.”<\/p>\n

The AI in the search tool only looks for answers based on what has been posted on the city’s website, Guthrie said, to give users the most accurate information.<\/p>\n

“It’s not connected to google, it’s not connected to ChatGPT, so you can trust that the answer you’re getting is from the website. We’re just making it easier,” she said, adding it doesn’t record any personal information.<\/p>\n

\"AThe new search bar is front-and-centre in the City of Kitchener’s website. (City of Kitchener)Tool also helps city staff<\/p>\n

Two hours down Highway 401, the City of Kawartha Lakes worked with municiPal AI to use the same feature on its website.<\/p>\n

The city was the first to trial the new AI-powered search tool and launched it on its website on September 2025.<\/p>\n

Cheri\u00a0Davidson, manager of communications, advertising and marketing with the city told CBC News the website’s new search tool has not only helped residents, but city staff as well.<\/p>\n

“Our customer service team for example, there’s a team of 14 and they are answering calls and walk-ins and taking questions from residents all day long and they’re using it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Before, they use to use a google search to find whatever they could on our website, so it’s really become an internal resource.”<\/p>\n

Davidson said its a smart way to use AI technology, especially on a customer service level. <\/p>\n

“It goes along with innovation and being more efficient, how can we use technology to solve the problems that our residents are facing,” she said. <\/p>\n

Davidson said city staff are in the process of drafting an AI-use policy to answer that question. She said the city will be incorporating city council agendas, minutes and reports to the AI system.<\/p>\n

“It’ll make all of that information easily searchable and ask a needle-in-a-haystack question and the AI, through municiPal, will return with what you’re looking for,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-418005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}