The Allegany County Department of Social Services received committee approval to contract with TIBCO Corporation for an artificial-intelligence phone and chat assistant designed to answer inbound calls, start applications and provide an internal staff chat for changing rules.

At a June meeting, Commissioner Don Horan told the Human Services Committee the system—branded in the demonstration as "Eva"—can greet callers, ask location information, locate local resources such as food pantries, begin benefit applications and hand off complex cases to staff. "I'm looking for EVA to lessen the burden on the workers and the supervisors and [to] streamline answering phones," Horan said.

The county demonstrated three components: an answering-phone module to handle incoming calls; an "Eva Companion" chat for staff to query procedures and updated program rules; and an application module that can collect identifying information and begin a HEAP or SNAP application before passing it to a worker to complete. Horan said the system records interactions and provides transcripts that supervisors can review.

Committee members asked about several operational and legal details. Committee member Barnes asked whether the system would reduce staff; Horan said the goal was to repurpose, not eliminate, personnel and allow senior typists and supervisors to focus on casework and investigations. Another committee member raised emergency-response concerns: when asked what the system would do if a caller says "someone's hurting me," Horan said he would follow up and provide a written answer later to the committee.

IT staff present said the system is a cloud-based, standalone product and supports multifactor authentication for the internal chat function. Committee member Bassett asked about scale and cybersecurity; staff said the phone module can handle thousands of simultaneous calls and that the system is designed to redact social security numbers from recordings. Horan said Office of Temporary Disability approval at the state level has been obtained for the county to proceed.

The contract was put to a vote after discussion. A motion to accept the contract was moved by Prasad and the committee voted in favor.

The county did not provide a copy of the final contract terms or the exact annual cost at the meeting. Horan described the contract as an initial one-year agreement and said TIBCO's implementation approach would "crawl, walk, run," adding capabilities over time. Committee members asked for follow-up details on emergency call routing, the precise security controls and liability coverage; Horan said the county would provide additional information by email.

The agreement is intended to reduce routine call volume, help start expedited applications and give staff a consistent, documented source of policy answers. The committee requested clarifications on emergency response and data security before broader deployment.