Novosibirsk State University (NSU) has developed an AI-powered chatbot for the city's municipal portal, now rebranded as Novosibirsk Online. The assistant, internally referred to as robot-assistant-383, provides guidance on obtaining municipal services, including those available via the federal Gosuslugi platform.
The chatbot operates on the Sigma framework, created by the NSU Artificial Intelligence Research Center. It relies exclusively on 38 specific municipal service regulations to generate answers, ensuring it does not access external internet sources or generate unverified information.
The project aims to reduce the workload on district administration staff. In addition to the public-facing bot, the university and the city have developed Sigma Reglament, a tool for technical support staff designed to halve the time required to locate documentation and service recommendations.
The collaboration between the Novosibirsk mayor's office and NSU began in August 2025, with a formal cooperation agreement signed in April 2026. The university's research center currently employs 217 staff members, including three members of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
