Interview with Robert Theobald

What experiences shaped your career? What inspired your focus on small businesses?

I spent nearly 17 years with Walmart, working in stores, field management, and international operations.  I have worked or studied in Argentina, Spain, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Being fluent in Spanish was a valuable asset in these roles!

That experience gave me valuable insights into what makes businesses successful. After Walmart, I transitioned to small box retail. What I found interesting was that many of the principles translated across business sizes.

Today, my role in the Arizona Commerce Authority lets me assist businesses across the state with everything from licensing to growth strategies. It’s rewarding to use my retail experience to help small business owners succeed.

How are you using GenAI Chatbots to improve the delivery of government services?

We have an extensive small business checklist that’s unique in the country. It’s over 200 web pages of information helping business owners understand what they need to do to start and operate in their specific industry, city, and county. While it’s an amazing resource, it can be overwhelming to navigate.

To make this information more accessible, we created “SALLI.” She’s our virtual assistant for State And Local Licensing Information.

Rather than having users read through multiple pages or waiting for a callback, SALLI can instantly provide specific answers from our checklist. This helps business owners get the information they need quickly, while allowing our team to focus on more complex support needs.

What was your approach to implementing a GenAI Chatbot?

After evaluating several options, we partnered with Botco.ai to develop a solution. Our key focus was accuracy and reliability. Instead of letting the AI access the entire internet, we specifically trained it on our small business checklist content. This focused approach helps prevent misinformation and ensures businesses get accurate guidance.

We also implemented a continuous improvement process where we review the AI’s responses and provide feedback to improve its accuracy. We have meetings every other week to look at the details and fine-tune the system. It’s been crucial to have both our small business team and IT department involved to ensure we’re linking to the right information and that all our help systems are working properly.

How did your chatbot change the community’s experience of engaging with government services?

We’ve seen a significant increase in unique users engaging with our virtual assistant over the past year. While our normal caseload fluctuates week to week, we’re seeing many people successfully getting the information they need through SALLI without having to reach out to our team directly.

This self-service approach has transformed how businesses interact with our resources. Instead of waiting for callbacks or navigating through hundreds of pages of documentation, they can get instant, specific answers to their questions.

What’s particularly encouraging is the accuracy and relevance of the interactions. When we review the AI’s responses, we’re finding it’s providing helpful, precise information that matches the users’ needs.

How has GenAI changed your staff’s workload?

SALLI has allowed our small team to focus on more complex support cases while ensuring that routine inquiries are handled efficiently. The chatbot has essentially become a 24/7 extension of our team, making our small business services more accessible and responsive to our small business community.

At the same time, this way of delivering information also takes a big burden off business owners. Rather than asking them to find and interpret the regulations and requirements, we’re using technology to meet them where they are and provide exactly what they need to know.

So it’s really a win-win for both the agency and the community we serve.

What were the biggest lessons learned from deploying a chatbot?

The implementation was more complex than we initially anticipated, particularly on the technical side. Botco.ai wasn’t familiar with our backend system, which created some challenges in getting the right information to flow properly.

The biggest lesson was the importance of close collaboration. We maintained constant communication between our team, our IT department, and Botco.ai. This helped us work through the technical challenges and ensure everything was properly integrated.

We still meet regularly to review performance and make improvements. When challenges arise, having those strong collaborative relationships helps us address them quickly and effectively.

How are you sharing your learnings with your community?

Through our Small Business Boot Camp, a webinar series we’ve been running every Tuesday morning for four and a half years, we’re helping businesses understand how AI can benefit them. We’ve had several sessions focused on using AI for marketing plans and operational efficiencies.

One of our partners, Kevin Connors from the Central Arizona College Small Business Development Center, has developed excellent presentations showing how simple prompts can help create marketing plans or generate ideas for weekly blog posts. It’s exciting to show businesses how these tools can help them save time and money.

How else are you engaged in the Arizona community?

I’m passionate about motorcycle travel, particularly off-road adventure riding. I’ve been a regular presenter at Arizona’s Overland Expo West for the past five or six years, teaching sessions about camping and cooking off motorcycles.

Photography has also been a big part of my life since middle school. I’ve had my work featured in several outdoor adventure magazines, including a cover shot for a motorcycle magazine.

I particularly enjoy capturing Arizona’s lesser-known areas. There are amazing spots you can only reach by dirt roads that most people never get to see. It’s a great way to combine my interests in photography and motorcycles.

What excites you most about the future of chatbots and GenAI?

What excites me most is seeing how these tools can make government services more accessible and efficient for small businesses. We’re also seeing businesses discover creative ways to use AI to save time and money on tasks like marketing and operations.

As these technologies continue to evolve, I believe they’ll become increasingly valuable tools for both government agencies and the small businesses we serve.