Training city staff on AI now can lead to better service delivery later, leaders say
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In California, the city of San Jose is building its workers’ AI and data skills, which officials say can improve service delivery to residents.
For public servants, it can be a constant challenge to keep up with community members’ expectations for service delivery, particularly as the private sector can quickly adapt to and adopt new technologies like artificial intelligence.
An AI training program in San Jose, California, “gets to the heart of that” issue, said Albert Gehami, digital privacy officer for the city, which is located in the tech hub Silicon Valley. “Staying on top of this technology is something that we take seriously.”
The city’s AI Upskilling Program looks to educate city employees on AI tools that they can leverage to streamline their workflow, and, ultimately, improve public service delivery. It launched in September 2024, and its second cohort just graduated.
Staff who gain more experience using AI can apply those skills to enhance their current work, like grant writing, data analysis, document review or meeting management, Gehami said.
“Productivity was really one of the first ideals that we were shooting for, recognizing that the work never ends really, and we have such a lean staff and burnout is real,” said Stephen Caines, chief innovation officer and budget director for the city. “We want to be able to give our staff tools that specifically make their lives better and allow them to … better manage the high demands that are placed on local government.”
With a curriculum designed in partnership with San Jose State University, city staff undergo training for 10 weeks, where they learn about responsible AI practices, how to craft effective AI prompts, how to develop custom generative pretrained transformers and other skills to support their daily operations.
A separate training track aimed at sharpening staff’s data skills offers training to leverage tools like geographic information systems, SQL, Power BI and others. Participants walk away from this track with an insights generating dashboard to help them address city problems more effectively, Gehami said.
The AI and data training showed productivity gains among its first two graduated classes, who have increased their efficiency by about 20%, saving between 10,000 and 20,000 hours, city officials said in a statement. Authorities also estimate that the upskilling initiative has helped save $50,000 in consulting costs.
For instance, one employee with the city’s Department of Transportation, Andrea Arjona, was able to apply their new AI skills to build a custom AI assistant that supported their grant writing efforts. Those secured $12 million in federal funds for the city to install more than 100 electric vehicle chargers across the city.
Arjona, the department’s climate smart and e-mobility program lead, was also able to adapt the tool to another grant application, securing another $2.5 million in funds after the original federal grant was suspended in early 2025.
“The AI Upskilling Program wasn’t just about learning new tools — it changed how I approach my work and helped me work more efficiently,” Arjona said in a statement. “I was able to complete routine tasks faster, which gave me more time to think through complex problems and focus on work that has a real impact on the communities we serve.”
The upskilling program started with the city’s Information Technology Department, and officials plan to expand it across 15 city departments by the end of 2025. In 2026, officials hope to see more than 1,000 staff participants enrolled.
Caines said such training programs can help ease staff’s concerns about AI’s role in the workplace, amid some fears about the technology’s potential to assume tasks traditionally done by humans. San Jose leaders, for instance, have reported that staff members are more likely to apply to and complete the training program once they see a colleague had a positive experience with it, he explained.
Something that struck Gehami at the end of the second cohort, for instance, is that staff weren’t just building tools to solve their own individual problems, he said. “They’re starting to build tools that are solving problems for their division, and, even more broadly, they’re starting to build tools that are solving problems for their department.”
He pointed to a city staff member who started building an AI tool to assist them with procurement, before redesigning it so it could be used by procurement staff in other city agencies as well.
Training programs like San Jose’s, Caines said, help empower city workers “to better not only your workspace and your team, but ultimately, the lives of residents.”