It’s time for cities and higher education to join forces on effective AI, experts say

Cities across the U.S. are looking to experiment with and deploy artificial intelligence to enhance their operations and service delivery. As budget and staffing shortages remain barriers for municipalities, however, cities should call on nearby higher education institutions for a helping hand, researchers say. 

A new brief from the nonprofit New America calls on cities and academic institutions to capitalize on their shared goal of adopting artificial intelligence for public good. The brief suggests that, by carving out partnerships to share knowledge and expertise on the technology, local governments and higher education institutions can also boost workforce and economic development opportunities. 

But such partnerships “remain uncommon” and slow to develop, according to the brief. City leaders must engage with higher education institutions to help the public sector deploy AI into government responsibly and effectively to address public issues, like permitting, benefits access, transportation and other critical services.  

“Local governments are realizing, unlike past waves of technology, cities are not really the first adopters [of artificial intelligence]. They're a little bit slower to come to the game than state governments, and that's unusual and different,” said Neil Kleiman, a report co-author and a senior fellow and professor at the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University. 

“At the same time, universities and colleges jumped right at [AI] immediately, partly because they had power users on their campuses — students — so they were forced to,” he said. Administrators also drove higher education’s use of AI, and a recent workforce survey found that 94% of staff and faculty use the technology on a regular basis to assist with research, streamline admissions reviews and other tasks. 

Indeed, the academic sector quickly adapted to AI’s pervasion by establishing governance structures, guidance, policies and use cases, according to New America. 

As a result, there is “this incredible dynamic in which local governments, meaning cities in particular, really need some help and around AI, like partners, assistance, hand holding, expertise, all of the above, and then they've got it right there with universities,” Kleiman explained. 

The public and academic sectors can yield mutual benefits from combining forces, and one way to do that is by establishing an AI compact that articulates both organizations’ goals with the technology, according to the brief.

A compact serves as a memorandum of understanding that outlines how local governments and higher education institutions can collaborate on AI projects, including clarifying project priorities, defining organizational roles and outlining measurable expectations, the report stated. 

Such agreements help increase accountability and transparency around AI initiatives among government and academic leaders, but also for community members for whom civic AI solutions are being developed, Kleiman said. 

Ultimately, a compact establishes “something tangible that … you can look at a year afterward and say, ‘Did we do it? Did we not do it? [Are we] trying to do it, and [do] we have a sense of why it didn’t come together?’” he said. 

Municipal and academic collaborations should also center around a specific pain point that needs to be solved, rather than applying tech as a solution first. City leaders should, for instance, conduct an “internal scan to identify where AI could meaningfully advance public priorities,” the report stated. “This diagnostic step is not administrative housekeeping; it is strategic groundwork that ensures partnerships remain problem-led rather than technology-driven.” 

Since colleges and universities typically have more resources, whether through personnel or tech capacity, this presents another opportunity for alignment that city leaders should consider. Higher education institutions can help cities identify problem areas and apply their staff and students’ AI expertise and experience to the issue, said Eric Gordon, a brief co-author and director of the Center for Media Innovation and Social Impact at Boston University. 

Indeed, partnering with academic institutions can further benefit cities by creating a talent pipeline to the local workforce, according to the report. Academic organizations are increasingly incorporating AI into curriculum and degree pathways, creating an opportunity for higher education institutions to place students into research or experiential learning programs by working with local governments to develop AI solutions, Gordon said. 

Such arrangements can better align academic institutions’ priorities with governments’ economic and workforce strategies to ensure long-term growth and success, Kleiman said. 

City and academic partnerships are particularly relevant in this “current political context,” Gordon said. Indeed, public confidence in higher education is waning since President Donald Trump returned to office and amid the administration’s efforts to push colleges to change their policies in order to access certain federal funds, he said. 

Survey findings released in October show that about 70% of U.S. adults — up from 56% in 2020 — believe that the higher education system is “generally going in the wrong direction,” according to the Pew Research Center. 

Many colleges and universities are feeling “pressure to establish themselves as trustworthy institutions” and one way they’re doing that is by promoting their civic purpose, which is where their work with AI presents an opportunity to assist local governments, Gordon said. 

Previously, “universities play in their sandbox, and governments play in theirs, and never the twain shall meet, but we want to avoid” that as increasing connections between cities and higher education become apparent as they approach AI, he said.