Case Study: State of Illinois achieves faster unemployment claim support with Google Cloud Platform

State of Illinois Using AI to help residents impacted by COVID-19 receive unemployment benefits

The State of Illinois, through the Illinois Department of Employment Security, faced an overwhelming surge in unemployment claims and customer inquiries during COVID-19, with residents unable to visit offices in person. To cope with the backlog, the State of Illinois turned to Google Cloud Platform and its Contact Center AI service to quickly support citizens filing unemployment claims.

Google Cloud Platform deployed web and phone virtual agents in just two weeks each, integrating them with legacy contact center systems to handle common questions and after-hours calls. The solution processed more than 140,000 inquiries per day, answered 3.2 million inquiries in its first two weeks, and contributed to an estimated $100M in annual savings, while helping 99.99% of claimants receive timely unemployment payments.

State of Illinois

Jennifer Ricker

Acting Assistant Secretary