Last fall I had the honor of attending an event for the 150th anniversary of a family-owned business. Oswald’s pharmacy in Naperville has been in the same family for six generations.
At an event marking the milestone, a family member said the business used to be open 365 days a year. He calculated that it was open 22,000 straight days before a later generation finally decided to close on Christmas.
That tale of dedication got me thinking about my family. For many years, they operated a dairy farm. Cows don’t give you holidays off either. They don’t let you take a break when it’s too cold or too hot. They need to be milked every morning and every afternoon.
Dad learned the value of hard work on that dairy farm and taught it to me. He milked those cows every day. I don’t make Illinois Treasurer’s Office employees come into the office on weekends or holidays, but we do want to help people around the clock.
I know not all our customers can come into our building, visit our website, or call during office hours. People have jobs, many folks are raising families, and we all have demands on our time.
Some people may want to check our ICash site for missing money on holidays, or weekends, or at 3 a.m. For those folks, we created a chatbot. Now, if you have a question and no one is around to answer the phone, you can speak to Abe.
Abe is our AI Chatbot we have been training to answer the most commonly asked questions about the ICash program. Abe is not perfect, but he is a fast learner, pretty knowledgeable, and is a really hard worker. Like the family that owns Oswald’s, or my dairy farming ancestors, he never takes a day off.
Abe is part of how we were able to return $294 million in missing money to 545,000 people, businesses, and nonprofit groups in 2025. Abe stands ready to answer your questions when we cannot. And if you don’t like talking to people, you can chat with him during office hours as well.
Sincerely,
Michael
PS We thought about having a contest to name our newest office helper, but I have a soft spot for tall, lanky, sometimes-bearded elected officials from Central Illinois. Also, this is the Land of Lincoln, so we just went with Abe. If you like President Lincoln as well, you can celebrate his birthday on Thursday, February 12!
PPS I visited Oswald’s Pharmacy on their milestone anniversary in part because they offer Illinois Secure Choice to help their employees save for their own retirement. You can learn more about Illinois Secure Choice here.