{"id":4277,"date":"2025-10-29T13:42:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/cra-looking-at-ai-training-to-help-call-centre-staff-provide-accurate-answers\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T13:42:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:42:02","slug":"cra-looking-at-ai-training-to-help-call-centre-staff-provide-accurate-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/cra-looking-at-ai-training-to-help-call-centre-staff-provide-accurate-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"CRA looking at AI, training to help call centre staff provide accurate answers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CRA looking at AI, training to help call centre staff provide accurate answers<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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PoliticsA senior official working at the Canada Revenue Agency says the agency is looking to artificial intelligence and better training to help call centre agents provide more accurate answers to taxpayers.Auditor general report found call centres are slow to answer and often inaccurateCatherine Morrison \u00b7 The Canadian Press \u00b7 Posted: Oct 28, 2025 8:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 29Listen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesA sign marks the national headquarters of the Canada Revenue Agency in Ottawa. An auditor general report found that CRA call centre staff answered just 17 per cent of individual tax questions accurately. (Felix Desroches\/CBC)A senior official working at the Canada Revenue Agency says the agency is looking to artificial intelligence and better training to help call centre agents provide more accurate answers to taxpayers.Melanie Serjak, an assistant commissioner at the CRA, told MPs on a standing committee Tuesday the agency is looking to roll out a more \u201csenior and standardized\u201d level of training and to introduce \u201cautomation\u201d to improve the accuracy of CRA agents\u2019 advice to the public.\u201dWe are looking at the artificial intelligence and other technology tools that will assist the agents in providing complete and accurate responses,\u201d Serjak said. \u201cWe are currently working with our vendor in that space.\u201dAfter placing calls to the CRA\u2019s contact centres over four months this year, the office of Auditor General Karen Hogan found that CRA call centre staff answered just 17 per cent of individual tax questions accurately.In a report released last week, Hogan said the CRA seems more concerned with adhering to employee schedules for shifts and breaks than with the \u201caccuracy and completeness of information they provided to callers.\u201dWATCH | Auditor general \u2018can appreciate the frustration\u2019 Canadians have in reaching CRA agents:Auditor general finds tax call centres slow to answer, often inaccurateAuditor General Karen Hogan has found that Canada Revenue Agency contact centres are repeatedly failing to answer calls in a timely manner \u2014 and when agents do connect to a customer, they often provide inaccurate responses.Hogan said there are \u201clots of opportunities\u201d for the CRA to improve its performance through training or triaging calls.Serjak said before an agent gets on the telephone, they go through anywhere from two to 13 weeks of in-classroom training, followed by weeks of live training on the phone alongside a more senior agent.\u201dFrom a training perspective, we are looking at rolling out a more senior and standardized level of trainer,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are looking at implementing in the very near future some automation around our quality review process to make it even more efficient and more effective for our quality evaluators to assist them.\u201dThe CRA has used a virtual chatbot called Charlie to provide automated responses to frequently asked questions.Hogan\u2019s report said taxpayers are more likely to get an accurate response from the chatbot than from an agent.\u201dCharlie got it right 33 per cent of the time, so that\u2019s a little more accurate than reaching an agent and asking them a question about your personal taxes,\u201d Hogan said Tuesday. \u201cI think it just highlights that there\u2019s a lot of room for improvement.\u201dThe auditor general\u2019s report found that nine per cent of agents\u2019 total performance evaluation score related to the accuracy and completeness of the information they provided to callers. It also found that 45 per cent of their performance evaluation score was tied to schedule adherence and the amount of time they spent handling calls.\u201dSuch a small emphasis on accuracy does not prioritize quality service to callers seeking assistance,\u201d the report said.Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne speaks with reporters as he makes his way to caucus on Parliament Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 22. (Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press)On Sept. 2, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne set a 100-day timeline for the CRA to address call centre delays, with a deadline of Dec. 11. The CRA says it has since already surpassed its target of how many incoming calls it\u2019s answering.Serjak said Tuesday the CRA has been working to improve service since before the deadline was put in place.\u201dThe 100-day plan is certainly mobilizing the entire agency towards this service situation and we\u2019re treating it with highest priority possible,\u201d she said.Deputy auditor general Andrew Hayes said at the committee meeting that taxpayers expect fairness and timely and accurate service from the CRA.\u201dI think what\u2019s important to take from our audit report is the message that CRA needs to improve its accuracy, it needs to answer the questions from Canadians in a more timely way,\u201d Hayes said.Hayes said the results of the 100-day plan are encouraging but that he\u2019s concerned about how services will be during a busy tax season. ABOUT THE AUTHORCatherine Morrison is a reporter for The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CRA looking at AI, training to help call centre staff provide accurate answers PoliticsA senior official working at the Canada Revenue Agency says the agency is looking to artificial intelligence and better training to help call centre agents provide more accurate answers to taxpayers.Auditor general report found call centres are slow to answer and often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,1047,1],"tags":[116,1046],"class_list":["post-4277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-ontario","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-ontario"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}