Douglas County has launched Scout, an AI-powered chatbot that answers resident questions on four department webpages. The county's own description: "Scout is a new website tool designed to help you find County information, webpages and forms by asking a question in your own words."
Where to find it
Scout currently runs on these pages only:
- Public Works
- GreenWorks
- Wildfire Mitigation and Awareness
- Parks and Recreation
To use it, the county says: "To start a conversation, click the 'Ask Me Anything' button in the lower-right corner of a participating webpage."
How it works, and where it falls short
Scout pulls from the county's own pages rather than the open web. Per the county: "When you ask a question, Scout searches County-approved webpages and uses artificial intelligence to create a response based on that information."
The county is upfront that it can be wrong: "Because Scout uses artificial intelligence, it may occasionally provide an incomplete or inaccurate response. Please verify important details."
Scout also can't:
- Answer questions about county topics outside the four participating pages
- Submit a request, application, complaint or other form for you
- Schedule an appointment or complete a transaction
- Make decisions or provide official determinations on behalf of Douglas County
- Provide live assistance from a county employee
Part of a bigger rollout
The county calls Scout "the first step in Douglas County's Digital Front Door Project, a countywide initiative designed to make it easier for residents to find information and connect with County services." For now it's a pilot: the county says it will "evaluate how well Scout works and identify improvements before implementing a broader rollout."
Source: Douglas County, "Meet Scout, Douglas County's AI-powered website assistant". Checked Oct. 6, 2026.