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AI Assistant for Employee Ombuds Office Access

Inform

What it collects

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • A controlled knowledge base of unstructured text containing information about Ombuds Office services and role. This is the sole runtime data source; no personal data about employees is ingested.
Run by
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
No data retained
Shared with
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Your copy
You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

Inform

Ombot is a bilingual AI-powered chatbot deployed on the intranet of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. It provides Government of Canada employees with confidential, real-time guidance about the Ombuds Office and its services, without exposing who is seeking help. The system uses generative AI drawing on a controlled knowledge base of Ombuds Office documents, and users are informed that they are interacting with an AI system. No personal information is collected or retained.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • A controlled knowledge base of unstructured text containing information about Ombuds Office services and role. This is the sole runtime data source; no personal data about employees is ingested.

Processing

Language Models
  • A generative AI language model with natural language processing capabilities delivers bilingual (English and French) conversational responses. Responses are grounded in a controlled knowledge base with safeguards for sensitive queries.
Search & Retrieval
  • Retrieves relevant passages from the Ombuds Office knowledge base in response to employee queries before the generative model composes a response.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • Uses generative AI to compose conversational answers from a controlled knowledge base. The employee decides what to do with the guidance received; the system does not make decisions on their behalf.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • Uses natural language processing to understand employee queries and retrieve relevant information from the Ombuds Office knowledge base before generating a response.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • Conversational text responses (in English or French) providing accurate, real-time guidance about Ombuds Office services. Outputs are not about any individual and contain no personal information.

Run by

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
  • The federal department that deployed Ombot on its intranet to provide employees with confidential access to Ombuds Office services information.

GC AI Registry — Ombot

Built by

Government of Canada
  • The Government of Canada developed Ombot internally, positioning it as a reusable 'bot-in-a-box' model for scalable deployment across departments.

GC AI Registry — Ombot

Kept for

No data retained
  • The register states no personal information is involved. No personal data about the employee users is retained by the system.
  • Duration: No personal data retained

Shared with

Not available to me
  • No personal information is collected by the system, so there is no personal data record for an individual employee to access. Conversational logs, if any, are not made available to individual users.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseAI use is disclosed to users. Employees interacting with Ombot are informed that they are communicating with an AI system, not a human Ombuds representative.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyThe system's use of generative AI drawing on a controlled Ombuds Office knowledge base is publicly documented in the Government of Canada AI Registry. Employees can consult the registry entry for information about how Ombot works.

Risks and safeguards

  • Psychological harmEmployees in sensitive situations may receive inaccurate or inadequate guidance from the AI, potentially delaying access to real support or causing distress.Safeguard: Responses are sourced from a controlled knowledge base with safeguards for sensitive queries; the system is positioned as an informational guide, not a replacement for human Ombuds services; governance measures are in place for responsible use.
  • Loss of autonomyEmployees may over-rely on the chatbot and not seek human support when needed, or may perceive the chatbot as a substitute for confidential human-to-human Ombuds interaction.Safeguard: The system is advisory only; employees decide what action to take. The goal is to lower barriers to support, not replace human services. Privacy and safety safeguards and governance measures are explicitly described in the register.