Author: Angelica Wedell, Communications Director, Polco
It took humanity thousands of years to transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. With each passing year, technology advances exponentially. Today, AI use is ramping up at an exceptional speed. Understandably, some local governments may be overwhelmed or hesitant to adopt AI. However, AI presents an opportunity to transform and enhance local government decision-making with its ability to analyze seemingly limitless data. To stay ahead of the curve, governments must embrace change. But is this something they are ready to do?
AI in Local Government Readiness
Since early 2024, Polco has heard from hundreds of local government leaders about their readiness for AI. As it turns out, despite AI’s growing prominence, most organizations in the public sector are still in the early stages of adoption.
Many city leaders say they are curious about AI but have yet to start exploring its uses. Others are experimenting with large language models (LLM), like ChatGPT, for writing content such as press releases. Most have not done anything with AI at all.
But AI’s capabilities extend far beyond generative content creation, as is currently hyped up with large language models (LLMs), such as Open AI. LLMs are impressively powerful and have broader, more generic uses.
“The local government space needs something that is specifically intelligent about the needs of local governments…They need something that can help with local government reporting, data organization, strategic planning, budget development, and refinement with resident engagement and so much more.”
Alex Pedersen, Polco co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)
The Biggest Potential for AI in Local Government
Polco’s AI analyst tool, Polly, is designed specifically for the public sector to produce government performance analytics easily.
Polly is the first AI analyst specifically designed for the public sector. It is trained on Polco’s massive nationwide resident opinion and government performance metrics datasets, which data scientists have curated into one AI system. Polly is limited to working off these datasets, presents verifiable statistics, and cites its sources, making it much more reliable than tools like ChatGPT.
That means city leaders can quickly discover their community performance metrics and how they compare to cities. This fast analysis is helpful for decision-making, crafting policy, budget allocation, grant writing, and more.
Because Polly is so user-friendly, this AI makes data-driven decision-making much more accessible for local governments of all sizes.
“AI really makes this data easier to access, easier to grasp, easier to understand, easier to present, start using it if you will,” said Tobin McKearin, Polco VP of Data Science.
Experts say AI will soon be able to predict future problems, monitor real-time changes, and offer solutions to community problems.
Challenges To AI Adoption in the Public Sector
While AI generally has transformative power for governments and the communities they serve, there are a few barriers to widespread implementation.
Polly is the first AI analyst specifically designed for the public sector.
Many government professionals say they lack AI policies, resources, and expertise. City leaders also point to data security and privacy as concerns. Some say fear of change and job displacement hinder their progress.
“We’ve had that long-standing kind of fear of innovation and resistance to change that we need to figure out how to move around,” said Michelle Kobayashi, Polco’s Principal Research Strategist. ”So once we start putting our decisions into the hands of technology, we just have to make sure we have that collaborative relationship with technology.”
Kobayashi notes that most governments do not have an AI analyst on staff, so a tool like Polly does not replace a human worker. Instead, it fills a gap.
Three Components for Successful AI Adoption
1. Culture: Adopting AI is all about change management, Kobayashi says. Innovative organizations often have better decision-making processes; they share the same vision, are collaborative and communicative, and value stakeholder engagement.
Kobayashi says the most essential component of AI implementation is a growth mindset. (For example, how innovative is your organization? Are you risk-tolerant?)
2. Human Capital: The beauty of AI is it’s not overly technical. Most people can learn to use it. However, Kobayashi says governments need people who are champions and change agents to motivate their organizations to innovate and adopt new processes that include AI.
3. The Right AI Tools: Investing in the right tools and technologies—such as Polly—is essential for a successful AI implementation. Local governments need AI tools that are specific to their needs to have a good experience and gain confidence in the results. Then, establishing policies and frameworks ensures responsible and ethical AI usage.
AI offers significant opportunities to make innovation, efficiency and data-driven leadership easier than ever. By investing in the right tools and embracing change, local governments can spend less time weeding through tedious tasks and much more time where it counts most – moving their communities forward.
Explore the Power of AI
Let’s face it: curating city metrics can be daunting. But what if we gave you the exact data you want right now? Polco’s new AI-powered analyst, Polly, supercharges insight discovery. It can help win grants, fly through reports, and make smart plans. So, you can focus more on your community.
Visit the NLC Strategic Partnerships page to learn more about the organizations like Polco dedicated to making NLC the premier resource for local governments.
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