Emma is the City of Amarillo’s digital assistant, a cutting-edge use of technology designed to help answer your questions and provide information about City of Amarillo’s services.
- CONTACT INFORMATION
- feedback@amarillo.gov
- 806-378-3000
Learn about Amarillo's Emma
About Our Digital Assistant, Emma
Emma is the City of Amarillo’s digital assistant, helping residents find answers and information about city services anytime.
Human-First Approach: The Amarillo City Council adopted the Digital Dignity and Rights Ordinance, establishing guiding principles for the thoughtful development and use of technology tools and services.
The Information Behind Emma: Emma sources clear, accurate, and well-organized information from the city’s websites.
The city continually works to keep website information accurate, up to date, and easy to understand. The website is Emma’s source of information and also helps residents find reliable city information through search engines and other digital tools.
While Emma is designed to provide answers, responses may occasionally be incomplete or incorrect.
Easy, Conversational Access: Emma makes finding city information easy. Residents can ask questions directly instead of navigating through webpages. They can interact through text or speech in English or Spanish.
Emma maintains the context of the conversation, allowing for a natural flow of follow-up questions.
For example, after asking about jury duty, a resident can simply ask, “Where do I park?” or “How long will it take?” and Emma understands that they are still talking about jury duty.
Continuous Improvement: Emma does not independently learn or change. The city continually explores ways to improve the resident experience and make city information easier to access.
Questions or feedback can be sent to feedback@amarillo.gov or 806-378-3000.
How Emma Works
Emma uses a language model to understand questions and provide natural-language responses. In simple terms, residents ask a question, and Emma uses city-controlled information to provide an answer.
City Information Only: Emma does not search the internet for answers. Responses are based on information provided and controlled by the City of Amarillo.
Text or Speech: Residents can type a question or speak directly to Emma.
English and Spanish: English is the default experience. Residents can select Habla con Emma for a separate Spanish-language experience. The English and Spanish experiences operate independently.
Conversation Context: Emma can follow the topic during a conversation. This allows residents to ask follow-up questions without repeating all of the information from their original question.
Limitations: Emma does not think or understand in the way a person does. Responses are generated from the city information available to Emma and may occasionally be incomplete or incorrect.
No Independent Learning: Emma does not independently learn from individual conversations or change its own information. Improvements are reviewed and managed by the city.
Development Timeline
July 1, 2026 – Emma Version 2.0 Released
Emma 2.0 introduced conversational context, allowing residents to ask follow-up questions without repeating the original topic. The update also included improved image quality, a new Amarillo City Hall background, a cleaner interface, a new Stop Speaking button, and linked email addresses. Mobile improvements included a conversation window and click-to-call phone numbers.
August 12, 2025 – Emma Version 1.5 Released
The City launched Emma 1.5, introducing a more natural conversational style, improved guidance that directs users to the correct City web pages (acting as a digital concierge). This update also laid the groundwork for upcoming features such as conversational memory and context-aware responses.
October 1, 2024 – Public Launch
Emma officially launched to the public after months of development and testing, marking the City of Amarillo’s first major step into using AI to support resident access to information.