Greene County, NY Case Study
How EVA Transformed Agency Operations, Timeliness, and Staff Well-Being
Greene County Department of Social Services partnered with TipCo to deploy EVA, an AI-powered virtual assistant that reversed a post-COVID operational crisis and restored staff capacity across a lean, rural agency.
Cases fell behind, error rates climbed, and morale suffered.
After COVID, Greene County DSS faced a 27% eligibility vacancy rate, collapsing timeliness scores, and staff pulled off caseloads just to answer phones. Public assistance cases were opened on time only 52% of the time, SNAP timeliness sat at 55%, and nearly every eligibility worker was logging mandatory overtime weekly for over two years. Cases fell behind, error rates climbed, and morale suffered.
When the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, Greene County DSS did not simply bounce back. Like many agencies across the country, it faced a wave of retirements and staff departures, leaving a 27% vacancy rate on the eligibility side. The phones rang constantly, cases stacked up, and the workers who remained were stretched to the breaking point.
Commissioner Kira Pospesel, a registered nurse turned social services leader who has run the agency since 2004, watched the situation deteriorate despite every effort to contain it.
“Everything I did seemed to make things worse. I kept putting people back on the phones to take the messages, and the messages kept building up. The complaints kept building up. Any solution in any direction I turned, just made the problem worse.”
Kira Pospesel
Commissioner, Greene County DSS
The numbers confirmed what staff were experiencing every day. Public assistance cases were opened within the required timeframe only 52% of the time. SNAP timeliness sat at 55%. Cases more than 60 days late accounted for 19% of the public assistance caseload and 24% of SNAP. And to try to keep pace, nearly every eligibility worker was working overtime, every Wednesday evening, for more than two years.
Director of Eligibility Laura Becker, who has been with the agency for more than 30 years, describes the domino effect created: “We would have to pull examiners and put them out front. So, then the examiners could not do their work the way they needed to do their work. Plus, we were short-staffed…our error rates went up because the applications for benefits were not touched in a timely manner.”
Principal Social Welfare Examiner Stacey Smith, who oversees temporary assistance, SNAP, employment, and daycare units, put it simply: “Everything was just becoming very overwhelming for the workers and the supervisors. We all fell behind. Cases weren't being opened, issues weren’t being addressed timely, which then resulted in clients making more frequent phone calls.”
For Medicaid Supervisor Maureen Grupe, even the simplest calls compounded the pressure: “Just those little mundane questions—what’s your fax number? What are your hours? When can I see my worker? When you’re the person on the phones for the day and six of your phone calls are just about the fax number and the address, it really pulls you away when you’re trying to work on a case.”
Pre-EVA Agency Snapshot (June 2024)
52%
Public Assistance cases opened on time
55%
SNAP cases opened on time
27%
Agency vacancy rate
The TipCo team sat down with Pospesel and answered every question honestly, including the hard, but important, ones about compliance and data privacy.
Commissioner Pospesel was not a believer in AI when she first encountered TipCo. Her skepticism was practical: She’d heard the negative headlines, and her priority was protecting the trust and compliance requirements of her agency and community.
What changed her mind was not a product demo, it was a relationship. The TipCo team met with Pospesel and addressed every question directly.
Greene County signed its contract with TipCo in June 2024 and spent time working with TipCo to build something that would genuinely work for their staff and residents, not rushing to a launch date. Pospesel handled the regulatory paperwork (three full binders’ worth) so her team could stay focused on keeping the agency running. Stacey Smith and Maureen Grupe led the testing phase, spending days working through how EVA would respond, what language would work best for their clients, and how to handle the nuanced cases that only frontline staff would know to ask about.
“We weren’t just a number in a queue. We really meant something to the TipCo organization, and they made us feel that we were valued. They answered every question. They went above and beyond.”
Kira Pospesel
Commissioner, Greene County DSS
Smith describes the collaboration with TipCo as genuinely responsive: “There’d be days when I spent almost my entire day emailing back and forth with them, working out the kinks. But anytime I had a question, an issue, or a concern, it was addressed within 24 hours.”
EVA R&R, used to automate the Rights & Responsibilities recitation during eligibility interviews, went live first. Then EVA Phone launched to handle incoming calls to the agency. The Greene County team also upgraded their phone system, which had been installed in 2004, adding another layer of complexity. Laura Becker noted: “The old phone system was our biggest obstacle. That was more challenging than EVA.”
EVA Phone
Handles incoming call volume
EVA R&R
Automates rights and responsibilities recitation
24/7/365 Coverage
After-hours assistance and call routing
TipCo configured EVA around Greene County's specific workflows, client population, and compliance requirements.
EVA Phone took over incoming call volume while EVA R&R automated the Rights and Responsibilities recitation during eligibility interviews—freeing examiners to get back to doing the work only they can do.
Timeliness scores nearly doubled.
Public Assistance cases that were opened on time jumped from 52% to 84%. SNAP timeliness climbed from 55% to 85%, with late cases over 60 days dropping from 24% to 0%.
Mandatory overtime completely stopped.
Weekly overtime—a fixture for over two years—ended entirely once EVA absorbed incoming call volume and examiners returned to their caseloads full-time.
Greene County reached #1 in New York State for work participation.
By January 2026, the agency hit a 51.3% work participation rate for public assistance clients, the highest in the state.
“It wasn’t EVA that increased our work participation rate for public assistance clients. EVA was able to take care of the other problems, and I was able to focus on this problem and really tackle the things that meant a lot to our clients.”
Kira Pospesel
Commissioner, Greene County DSS
On opening day of the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) season, EVA handled over 800 calls, an impossible volume for a team of the agency’s size. EVA provided callers with information on when HEAP opened, how to apply, and where to drop off applications. For a county where clients used to line up outside the door when HEAP season began, the difference was transformational.
The agency also benefited from EVA’s 24/7 availability. Clients who called after hours, including those needing emergency housing assistance or emergency heating oil in the middle of the night, were directed to on-call services they might not have otherwise known how to reach. Overnight transcripts are reviewed by front-end staff each morning and distributed for follow-up. In Stacey Smith’s words: “In essence, we’ve never closed.”
EVA R&R added another dimension of time savings: Workers completing eligibility interviews now hand off the Rights & Responsibilities recitation to EVA mid-interview, freeing up 8–12 minutes per interview for workers to make copies, write case comments, or complete forms before moving to the next appointment.
Pospesel credits EVA’s presence with making the remaining workload more manageable and making the agency a more sustainable place to work.
Numbers tell part of the story. But the Greene County team is equally clear about something harder to quantify: the shift in how work feels.
Before EVA, the office was in a constant state of reactive chaos. Staff were pulled in every direction, often working jobs outside their roles while their own cases fell behind. The pressure was relentless, and morale reflected it.
“They’re definitely content. My examiners are now back at their desks. They’re doing their job. They’re able to sit and do their job and determine eligibility—and that’s what they’re here for.”
Stacey Smith
Principal Social Welfare Examiner, Greene County DSS
Smith describes the cultural shift concretely: “They’re able to build that team again. They’re able to have those conversations. They’re able to get up and have some birthday cake to celebrate somebody’s birthday without feeling guilty that all this is happening at their desk.”
Commissioner Pospesel noticed the same thing from her vantage point: “Before COVID, you might see a birthday note on someone’s desk, or preparations for a baby shower, or a wedding coming up. For the last couple of years, we really haven’t seen those. Now I see them again as I walk by.”
Maureen Grupe points to EVA’s call log as an unexpected tool for both accountability and peace of mind: “I like that when clients say they’ve called and called and called, I can go back in and see. I can find their phone number. Did they call? It’s like a checks and balances for the client plus for us.” For a team that had often been caught between frustrated clients and an overloaded staff, the ability to verify call history on either side changed the dynamic entirely.
The agency’s vacancy rate has also improved, from 27% at its worst to 12% today. Pospesel credits EVA’s presence with making the remaining workload more manageable and making the agency a more sustainable place to work. “I’m seeing fewer people making those changes,” she said of turnover. “Hopefully I’m through the great retirement.”
EVA’s reputation has spread.
Like any technology change, EVA met initial skepticism from some callers, particularly older and disabled residents who simply wanted to speak with a person. Greene County’s Medicaid caseload skews heavily toward aged and disabled clients, which meant that population’s experience with EVA was an early priority.
Grupe noted that EVA’s design makes a difference: “The fact that EVA asks them, 'Would you like a live person?'—and they can just say yes and get transferred right away—really helps people out. Every once in a while we get a funny transcript, but for most people, being able to quickly reach a human representative makes a real difference.”
Complaints about EVA, which surfaced occasionally in the early months of go-live, have largely faded. Pospesel reports she has not seen a complaint passed to her in almost a year. EVA’s multilingual capability, something no front desk could match in real time, has also helped serve non-English speaking residents.
EVA’s reputation has spread. A state agency that needed to reach Greene County DSS asked to speak with EVA directly rather than get a direct line. Other Greene County departments, including the Aging department and Veterans services, also decided to implement EVA, inspired by DSS’s results. And the New York State OTDA has taken notice, regularly citing Greene County’s outcomes as a model for what’s possible.
“EVA is very professional. Callers actually enjoy talking with EVA; she has a very soothing voice, and she’s always positive during conversations.”
Kira Pospesel
Commissioner, Greene County DSS
Greene County's success proves that when AI is implemented as a partner, agencies can restore capacity, improve outcomes, and give staff the time and support they need to serve their communities.
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Implementation is a partnership, not a product install
From the first conversation to monthly check-in calls, TipCo’s hands-on approach was cited by every Greene County team member as the key differentiator. Feedback was addressed within hours. Problems were solved collaboratively.
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Measurable results can arrive faster than expected
In just three months post-launch, SNAP late cases went from 24% to 0%. Public assistance timeliness nearly doubled. Weekly overtime ended. The return on investment (ROI) timeline was short.
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Staff well-being is a metric worth measuring
The end of mandatory overtime, the return of celebrations, and the reduction in reactive chaos all reflect something real: When workers can do their jobs, they show up differently. EVA helped make that possible.
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Early adopters open doors for everyone
As one of the first five counties in New York to implement EVA, Greene County helped build the playbook. Their results are now influencing how other counties approach the conversation.
"If I didn't make this decision, I can't imagine how many team members I would even have left at this point if I didn't do something different."
Kira Pospesel
Commissioner, Greene County DSS