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County IT previews new Tulare County website, aims for accessible, service-focused design and AI chatbot pilot
Summary
Information Technology staff previewed a redesigned county website intended to centralize content, improve mobile and accessibility performance, add multi-language support, and enable a January pilot for an AI chatbot; staff said the site will be cloud-hosted and launch is planned for late August.
Tulare County information-technology officials previewed a redesigned, countywide website and outlined plans to centralize content, improve mobile and accessibility performance, and pilot an artificial-intelligence-driven help tool next year.
Information Communications Technology staff said the legacy platform lacked standardization, created mobile and accessibility challenges, and hindered automation. The new site is built on a cloud-hosted content-management system and uses a “service-first” design that organizes pages by common requests—"I need to…"—rather than department structure.
Project leads said the county assembled a core team of roughly 75 people from departments across the county for content cleanup, user-acceptance testing and training. Key features highlighted included centralized digital-asset management (photos, video, documents), role-based content workflows, built-in accessibility and multi-language support with Spanish at launch.
IT staff said the county’s goal is to launch the new site in August and then move into an October customization phase; the department also plans a January proof-of-concept for an AI self-service chatbot that would answer public queries using site content. The site will include analytics so staff can monitor which services are most requested and will incorporate public feedback after launch.
Supervisors praised the work, noted the security benefits of hosting externally, and asked staff to continue working with departments on presentation and interoperability. IT staff said the cloud-hosted architecture reduces exposure of the county’s internal network and that the county has recently added a deputy director of information security to scale protections.
Project leads said photography and drone imagery were commissioned to populate the new site with local photos and that later phases will allow further department-led customization.
