Powering Chicago's official digital welcome
How a city's tourism bureau deployed a conversational AI chatbot that engaged 500,000 visitors with 91% success.
Challenges
COVID-19 shutdowns left the tourism bureau without a scalable way to answer rapidly changing visitor questions across reopening timelines.
Visitors had no easy way to discover neighborhoods and attractions beyond the downtown core.
Disconnected city data — events, restaurants, attractions — couldn't be surfaced through existing channels at conversational speed.
The organization needed a 24/7 digital presence that could handle volume spikes without additional staff.
Our solution
We built The Bean — an AI chatbot named after Chicago's iconic Cloud Gate sculpture and deployed as a 24/7 virtual city ambassador on the Choose Chicago website.
Powered by Google Dialog Flow with natural language understanding, The Bean gives every visitor a knowledgeable local's perspective on the city: events, restaurants, cultural neighborhoods, and real-time directions.
Conversational city guidance
The Bean handles Q&A for attractions, events, and restaurant recommendations — giving visitors instant answers without navigating menus or waiting for staff.
Neighborhood exploration
Location-based filtering lets visitors discover what's happening near them, expanding foot traffic beyond the downtown core to neighborhood arts districts and cultural venues.
Google Maps integration
Real-time proximity-aware directions are surfaced inline, reducing friction between discovery and arrival.
Live event and venue data
The Bean connects to the Choose Chicago database API, pulling real-time event listings and venue information so every answer reflects what's actually happening today.
The results
500,000+ visitor engagements
The Bean became the primary digital touchpoint for visitors seeking city guidance — at peak volume, with no additional staff required.
91% successful interaction rate
Nine out of ten conversations reached a satisfying resolution — setting a benchmark for destination AI deployments.
4+ star average rating
Visitors consistently rated The Bean above four stars across the engagement period.
National media recognition
The deployment was featured in Forbes and CBS News as a leading example of AI-powered tourism engagement.
