AI has brought ‘breathing room’ for small governments, leaders say

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA — Artificial intelligence has given small governments and their limited, overworked staffs “breathing room” to allow them to focus on the kind of work that needs more attention, local government leaders said last week.

Previously, local governments with a small staff would most often find themselves pulled away from their day-to-day work to deal with customer service questions, especially if they are in rural areas where the local government acts as a trusted resource.

But speakers said during the International City/County Management Association’s annual meeting last week that using AI for customer service chatbots to answer those routine questions has freed up staff to focus on the human-centric work that needs extra focus or attention to detail, while still ensuring that constituents’ questions are answered.

“[Technology] has left our staff with some breathing room,” said Laura Stelzner, city administrator and treasurer for Chetek, Wisconsin, during a panel discussion. “It really has. And it's given us the opportunity to take a breath. The phone is not ringing as often as it was. [Residents] can ask that question online, and a lot of them are.”

The time savings are stark in small governments. Stelzner said on stage that Chetek has an office staff of three, and they serve as the “hub of everything,” including answering questions about issues from local government services to, say, the opening hours of the local doctor’s office. Aaron Grisdale, town manager for Woodstock, Virginia, said it’s a similar story in his town as the finance staff also function as customer service employees.

AI, Grisdale said, can help “alleviate some of those burdens” and provide a way for residents to find the answers they are looking for while at the same time allowing staff to get on with what can sometimes be complex work.

Stelzner said that complex work can involve “deep diving” into invoices, purchase orders and other financial documents that need to be reconciled. That kind of work needs the human touch and cannot be delegated to AI, she said, but it also requires a deep focus that requires office doors to be closed and “Do Not Disturb” signs to be hung.

“We just went through an intensive budgeting season,” she said. “[Working] on those mitigating things alone are things that we tend to need to close the door and use as a core moment of time that we're focusing on our jobs.”

Recent research from software companies Granicus, Carahsoft and GovLoop found a similar trend across governments, as agencies of all sizes look to AI for what they described as “call deflection,” where the technology can make it easier to provide people with information in multiple languages while unburdening workers who would ordinarily be relied upon for that information.

Concerns remain about AI replacing jobs, especially in state and local government. But Grisdale said in his experience in Woodstock, the technology has acted as a “work accelerant” that helps employees be more efficient. Stelzner agreed, and noted that sometimes, staff make use of AI chatbots and other tools to help them do their jobs as well.

“The answer's right there, and we may have it by searching our ordinances and things like that, but it's truly right in front of us and at our fingertips,” she said. “Just being able to hone in on getting that answer faster helps a lot. There will be opportunities and times where we're on the phone with a resident and we're looking at our own chat, asking it, ‘Where do we find this?’ or ‘How do we complete this form?’”

Some of the efficiency gains have been noticeable, too. Grisdale gave the example of winter weather disruptions to trash and recycling pickup, which previously required the vendor to notify the town government about schedule changes, and then the government was left “scrambling” to get that information out and respond to messages and voicemails from people with questions about their own pickup.

Now, Grisdale said, Woodstock can receive information from their trash and recycling vendor, immediately get it online and then use AI to push out notifications to help keep at least some residents who embrace the tech better informed.

“It's just those little things that pile up in the morning, in terms of a small locality and your customer service staff,” Grisdale said. “Having that adaptability and improved 24/7 access to information for our residents has really been a game changer for us.”

Despite the growth in AI’s use inside and outside government, both Grisdale and Stelzner said they recognize that some residents will always want to speak with a human, and will continue to offer that service in addition to a tech-driven alternative. Stelzner said there is something of a “split” in the community about AI, and the Chetek government must cater to both sides.

“We have residents that want to just go to our ‘Ask me anything,’" she said. “We have residents who want to be able to complete all of their permit forms online, and that's great. Now we have the technology to do so. We didn't before. But we are still there to help the ones that do want it in person.”