From day one, City of Kingsport, TN is realizing its vision of its AI Agent acting as a force multiplier, allowing human staff to focus on the more complex customer support needs.
May 19, 2026 – Hansen Technologies (ASX:HSN), a leading global provider of software and services to the energy & utilities and communications & media industries, today announced that the City of Kingsport is live with its AI-powered virtual call center agent (named ‘Grace’). Powered by Hansen’s AI Agent solution and integrated with the City’s Hansen CIS, Grace is successfully handling calls to customers, supporting improved customer engagement and operational efficiency.
Operating a municipal water utility with a lean customer service team, the City of Kingsport sought a way to manage high day-to-day contact volumes while ensuring residents could still get timely and personal support for more complex needs. Hansen’s AI Agent with Hansen CIS went live in late April 2026 and the impact has been significant.
Early performance data highlights important gains for the City’s call center and Customer Service Representatives: In just the first few weeks, ‘Grace’ is handling more than 30 calls concurrently, resolving more than 60% of interactions end-to-end without needing to pass customers to a human agent. Grace can resolve issues more than 50% faster than human agents, which allows the human agents more time to work with escalated calls and shortens waiting times for all customers.
Floyd Bailey, Chief Information Officer at the City of Kingsport, explains: “Hansen’s AI Agent solution is a powerful force multiplier, integrating directly with the City’s customer information and relationship management system – Hansen CIS. This integration allows our newest team member, Grace, to support the human call center team by accessing account content in real time, manage billing inquiries, and take payments.”
‘Grace’ integrates with existing customer records to enable personalized interactions and uses advanced sentiment recognition to deliver empathetic, context-aware responses. The agent can also engage in either English or Spanish which further enhances accessibility and customer satisfaction.
“The pressure on all utility providers to deliver their customers increasingly faster and more seamless service is immense. At Kingsport, with Hansen’s AI Agent and CIS, we’re not just improving customer service; we’re redefining it. This is a gamechanger for both the City of Kingsport and its citizens,” Bailey adds.
Bobby Slaton, EVP Energy & Utilities Americas, says: “The customer call center is the most human-facing part of the utility sector, and advanced AI with sentiment capabilities enhances rather than disrupts this experience. From day one, our Hansen AI Agent enhanced the City’s speed of service and convenience, enabling Kingsport to deliver improved service while empowering human representatives to focus on complex needs.”
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About City of Kingsport
The City of Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the US state of Tennessee. It is home to more than 55,000 people. Amongst its many services, the City provides all water services, including storm and wastewater services, to the citizens of the City.