Since August 2025, the municipality of Hilversum has been using a chatbot. This chatbot is called Hilly and is the first to answer questions via WhatsApp. Hilly is not a real person, but a computer program. If Hilly cannot answer your question, a live employee will take over the conversation. This will be clearly indicated.
What do you need to know
What is a chatbot
- A chatbot is a computer program that can talk to people, via text or speech.
- A chatbot can answer questions, provide information, or help with arrangements. For example, making an appointment to visit the City Hall.
- Hilly uses artificial intelligence (AI). This allows Hilly to better understand your questions and respond appropriately. The municipality wants to gain experience with this technology. This will allow us to improve services and make them easier for our residents.
Basis for answers
- Hilly only provides answers based on web pages selected by the municipality. These are pages from hilversum.nl, the national government, and partners such as GAD Gooi and Vechtstreek en Parking Service Hilversum
- Hilly cites the source for each answer. Are you unsure about an answer? Then check the website or contact the municipality by phone at 14 035
Privacy
- Conversations with Hilly are kept for a maximum of 3 months. This is to help Hilly get better. This is done in accordance with the rules of the GDPR (Privacy Act)
- Hilly uses a language model, a kind of AI. This model runs on servers in the Netherlands and Ireland. So no data is sent to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA)
- The data is well-secured and automatically deleted after 3 months. It is not used for advertising or to train the language model.
- The municipality has explained how Hilly works in the national algorithm register
Still in development
AI technology is new. The municipality wants to learn more about it. Therefore, Hilly may not always work properly. For example, improvements are still needed for conversations in other languages.
