Meet Iris: Tennessee launches AI chatbot for professional licensing help - WZTV
High confidence: full text extraction produced 2240 characters.
Meet Iris: Tennessee launches AI chatbot for professional licensing help
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance has launched an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot intended to provide around-the-clock help to licensed professionals with questions about state licensing requirements.
The chatbot, called Iris, is available through the department’s CORE licensing system and the Regulatory Boards Division website, TDCI announced Tuesday.
Named for Tennessee’s state flower, Iris is designed to assist the more than 357,000 licensees covered by the division’s 26 regulatory programs, according to the agency. That includes professionals such as contractors, real estate agents and motor vehicle salespeople.
RELATED NEWS | OpenAI reveals AI models tried to bypass safeguards, hide mistakes
People can use the chatbot to ask about licensing requirements and to request information about licensed individuals and businesses, TDCI said.
The agency said Iris is available in English and Spanish and can be used outside the department’s regular customer-service hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central Time on weekdays.
TDCI said the chatbot can access licensees’ applications and files in the CORE database but cannot share customers’ personal data. The agency also said Iris will notify users when it cannot answer a question and when a human customer-service representative is needed.
“Iris is a seamless transition between traditional customer service representatives and artificial intelligence,” TDCI Commissioner Carter Lawrence said in a statement.
RELATED NEWS | Reading scores slide amid worries that AI is shortcutting learning
TDCI said the chatbot had a soft launch in August before Tuesday’s broader announcement.
The department’s Customer Service Center processed 163,910 initial and renewal professional-license applications and received 220,960 customer inquiries in 2025, according to TDCI. The agency said its average wait time fell by more than four minutes last year and that it maintained a 96% customer-satisfaction rating.
For now, Iris is focused on licensing questions. Customers can find it by selecting the chat icon on the CORE website or TDCI’s Regulatory Boards Division website.