BEIJING: Beijing is expanding the use of artificial intelligence and big data in its 12345 public service hotline, in order to make the service more responsive and help city authorities address residents’ concerns, officials said at an international forum on Monday.
Speaking at the 2026 Beijing Forum on Swift Response to Public Complaints, Yin Li, Party secretary of Beijing, said that digital technologies could help the city identify emerging concerns and move from passive responses to proactive governance. He pledged to make city management more precise and intelligent to better serve residents in the megacity of about 21.8 million people.
Since its reform began in 2019, Beijing’s 12345 hotline has handled about 200 million requests from residents and businesses. The resolution rate has climbed from 53.1 percent to 97.3 percent, while satisfaction rate has risen from 64.6 percent to 97.7 percent, according to city authorities.
Artificial intelligence is now being used to analyze calls, retrieve previous service records and direct requests to the relevant departments. The system has expanded its classification of public requests from more than 2,000 categories to nearly 9,200, allowing more precise assignments.
Li Zhaochen, a hotline operator, said that AI tools automatically generate service orders and recommend responsible departments based on callers’ concerns.
“When a call comes in, the system quickly provides the caller’s previous requests,” she said. “With AI tools handling the typing and searching, I no longer have to type each word manually.” The technology allows Li to process a service order in about five minutes.
The hotline has also expanded multilingual services for Beijing’s international residents. Feng Yingyi, deputy director of the Beijing 12345 Citizen Hotline Service Center, said English-speaking operators are supported by AI-powered translation tools, while cooperation with Beijing Foreign Studies University provides additional language expertise.
In a recent case, a mother calling from Abu Dhabi sought help to replace her children’s birth certificates, which were issued by a private hospital in Beijing. The hotline coordinated with the hospital, which reissued the documents to her husband in Beijing.
Omar Al-Razzaz, former prime minister of Jordan and a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, has visited Beijing’s 12345 service center three times and examined cases across the city’s 16 districts.
He shared his observations in the second installment of Hotline Beijing 2, a documentary series on Beijing’s hotline reform that is set for international release.
“The 12345 services not only answer calls and respond to citizens’ requests, but also call back to provide solutions and offer satisfaction surveys,” he said, calling the reform “a milestone in urban governance reform that more countries can replicate and adapt to their own contexts”.
Anaclaudia Rossbach, United Nations under-secretary-general and executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, said in a video address that she has “seen many successful practices in China” and is ready to cooperate with Chinese cities to explore new approaches to people-centered urban governance. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
