The MBTA tested a generative AI chatbot developed by Northeastern University students that assists MBTA customer service representatives at The RIDE paratransit service by quickly retrieving policy information and answering frequently asked questions during live calls with riders. Customer service staff began using the chatbot during testing in 2024; as of the most recent sources it remained an internal tool for representatives, not a public-facing system.

The chatbot was built by Northeastern University students in the AI for Impact Co-op Program as part of the Massachusetts InnovateMA government partnership. It takes natural-language queries from MBTA call takers as input and searches MBTA policy documents and websites to produce cited answers that representatives can relay to callers. The tool also generates lists of sources for further reference. The developers and Mass.gov confirmed the tool was being used by MBTA customer service representatives during testing in mid-2024 and was highlighted at a briefing with Governor Healey. As of the most recent sources it is not confirmed to be a permanent production deployment; the developers noted it could potentially be adapted for external use in the future.