Arlington Virtual Assistant (AVA)

Click on the cherry blossom-colored chat bubble in the bottom right of your screen on most pages of the County website. A chat window will open, and you can type a question in the field where you see “How can I help you?” Either click or tap the arrow or hit Enter on your keyboard to submit your question. Sometimes there is a brief delay while the bot works to answer your question. 

AVA provides a way to “Rate your experience” at any point during your conversation. At the bottom of the chat, select an emoji face that corresponds to your interaction, and then select the “Provide more feedback” link to share more detailed, written feedback. This feedback is monitored and will be used to improve the user experience.

AVA works on any internet browser, and many devices, including desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, and tablets.

No, AVA is a fully automatic bot. Currently there is no option to talk to a human in the chat bot, but we are planning to add a live agent aspect in the future.

The best way to get personal service is by visiting the Service Request page or by calling 703-228-3000. Additional resources are available on the Contact Arlington County page.

AVA is now available to answer questions and provide information about Arlington County and its services. You can ask things like, “Where can I order mulch?” or “Where is the closest library?” You can also ask AVA for information on things like community center hours and voting locations; simply ask, “When is Lubber Run open?” or “Where can I go to vote?”

At the time of launch, AVA works best in English. Although AVA can understand non-English languages, it still typically responds in English. If you or someone you know needs assistance in a language other than English, you can use the language translation drop-down in the upper right corner of each webpage to translate the page content or call 703-228-3000.

In the event of a life-threatening emergency, call or text 9-1-1 on your phone. AVA is not connected to emergency services.

The County continues to evaluate a number of methods to provide the most effective customer service experience possible. Live chat is one of the options we are planning for future releases of AVA.

AVA will never ask you for personal information, and it does not store any information besides what is in the conversation. Please do not provide any personal or sensitive information to AVA, such as credit card or social security numbers.