The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) has recently implemented a new AI-powered chatbot on its website in an effort to improve user experience for employers and claimants. This chatbot utilizes generative AI to provide 24/7 access to answers for common questions about UI compliance, claims, and employer responsibilities. This chatbot has the power to quickly scan all content located on the Agency’s website to generate a response to relevant questions, meaning users do not have to know the exact location of content on the website to find the correct answer to a question.
Many small business owners have expressed frustration about the difficulties of navigating the various time-consuming requirements from the UIA and have shared their challenges getting a timely response from the Agency on pressing questions. This new chatbot is not meant to be a complete substitute for human assistance, but it will certainly free up agency staff from answering basic questions whose answers exist somewhere on the agency’s website. Alongside this new UIA chatbot, Michigan’s Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB) is in the process of implementing a single AI chatbot across all State of Michigan websites as a resource for customers.
This new chatbot can be found on the UIA Website in the bottom right corner of the page.
The chatbot rollout is just one piece of a larger transition at the UIA. The agency has been in the process of unveiling a new system change, called MiUI, which will replace the old system, MiWAM later this year. Employers will be required to use this new system for Quarterly Wage Report in January 2026. The agency recently offered a preview of the new system. Click here to watch.
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