An AI tool built by local government, for local government
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Washoe County, Nevada, is helping develop an AI tool aimed at meeting the unique needs and demands of its residents and employees.
In Nevada, Washoe County’s expertise and experiences are helping inform the development of an artificial intelligence solution built for local governments as leaders use the technology to streamline workflows and improve efficiency.
The county is working with the consulting and software engineer firm OnStrategy to collaborate on developing a generative AI platform that helps turn agencies’ unstructured data and internal records into AI-enabled assistants for agency staffs’ research and writing tasks.
The Madison AI platform launched last year and is now being used by nearly 50 local agencies and governments across the U.S. The generative AI service helps automate functions like drafting staff reports, requests for proposals, zoning documents and government workflows.
“The expertise of local government is what helped catalyze the understanding of the technology [and] the work at hand,” said Dave Solaro, assistant county manager at Washoe County.
AI solutions must be attuned to where data is collected from and how it is presented so they can meet local governments’ unique needs and specifications, he said.
Solaro pointed to one of the platform’s first uses as an example, which was drafting staff reports. Washoe County employees found that just gathering relevant information, like existing laws, previous decisions or planning documents, to start writing a report is the true “stumbling block” for engineers, planners and other staff, he said.
Madison AI can pull all that information together to create a staff report and a background summary of the report within minutes, which helps expedite how government leaders make informed decisions that impact policies and services in their communities, Solaro said.
The platform is also a closed AI model, which ensures that local governments are researching and making decisions based on their own data rather than media reports, for example, which could be mixed into results generated by a general-purpose AI tool, said Erica Olsen, CEO of Madison AI.
“Safe and secure and responsible AI comes from a dataset that is intentional, curated and purpose built,” she said. “That’s what it takes in order for AI to be credible, useful, and quite frankly, not produce work slop.”
Indeed, Madison AI is helping Solaro and his staff focus more on strategic county planning rather than “putting out fires” every day through administrative tasks like combing through old data records, he said.
While the platform’s outputs still have to be checked for accuracy, the AI solution helps save about five to 10 hours a week to “do the things that the county expects of an assistant county manager,” Solaro said.
Washoe County will continue to help Madison AI consider how to expand its services to better serve local government, such as improving public records request processes with AI, Olsen said. Solaro added that the county is exploring the potential for an AI assistant that provides background information on a piece of property to help county planners.
Ultimately, the “unique model” of a county government co-creating an AI product helps the public and private sector create “the opportunity to really help cities and counties find more efficiencies,” Olsen said.