---
title: 'Montgomery County, Maryland: Monty conversational assistant for county services'
slug: montgomery-county-monty-311
stable_id: b54968e6258d7e13
company: Montgomery County, Maryland
function_code: customer_service
pattern_codes:
  - coordination_compression
  - creator_to_judge
evidence_strength: verified
publication_tier: showcase
freshness: watch
reviewed_at: '2026-08-23'
updated_at: '2026-08-22'
source_quality_summary: 1 independent; publication outcomes are verified.
caveat_summary: >-
  Result combined chatbot launch with telephony routing changes. Monty 1.0 also drew
  negative feedback for limited scope and phrase comprehension.
collections:
  - queue-eliminated
bundle_version: 1.0.0
bundle_fingerprint: sha256:c23c6cc2b88153d008ea8fda928f632ce0011fc2d4c5036672a16e5d895bab93
canonical_url: https://brianletort.ai/transformations/montgomery-county-monty-311
---

# Montgomery County, Maryland: Monty conversational assistant for county services

A multilingual assistant can answer first-line 311 questions while urgent or unresolved needs route to people.

Function: Customer service. Patterns: Coordination compression; Creator to judge. Evidence: verified.

Freshness: watch. Reviewed: 2026-08-23. Updated: 2026-08-22.
Watch status: verify the cited source and deployment condition before reusing this case.

Source quality: 1 independent; publication outcomes are verified.

## Before

1. **Resident** — Calls MC311 and waits for a customer-service representative. (control: Telephony routing.)
2. **Representative** — Finds the relevant county service and answers or routes the request. (control: Human service judgment.)

## After

1. **Monty assistant** — Answers information requests and directs residents across covered 311 topics and languages. (control: Curated county knowledge and urgent-call routing.)
2. **311 representative** — Handles unresolved, urgent, or complex requests. (control: Human service authority.)

## Decision rights

Residents may use human channels; county staff retain service and case decisions.

## Exception path

Urgent calls are routed quickly; unsupported questions and negative feedback trigger human service and knowledge updates.

## Outcomes

- **Call hold time** (verified): Five minutes before Monty 1.0 and telephony-routing changes. → Two minutes within two months.. Result combined chatbot launch with telephony routing changes.
- **Call abandonment** (verified): 25% of calls. → 11% within two months.. Monty 1.0 also drew negative feedback for limited scope and phrase comprehension.

## Executive lesson

A public chatbot case is credible only if adoption gains and resident frustration are reported together.

## Anti-pattern

Attributing telephony improvement solely to AI or hiding scope failures.

## Questions for leaders

- Which topics are safe for self-service?
- How quickly can residents reach a person?
- How is answer accuracy tested?

## Sources

- [Montgomery County, Md.’s Chatbot Shows GenAI in Action](https://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/montgomery-county-md-s-chatbot-shows-genai-in-action) — Government Technology