A National Call to Action The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) recently released a major report—Bringing AI to Main Street: Maximizing Artificial Intelligence’s Positive Impact on Municipal Economies—that shifts the national conversation about artificial intelligence (AI) from Silicon Valley…
Over the weekend, I sat down with a cup of iced coffee, my trusty dog, and the AI Guide for Government from the U.S. General Services Administration’s Centers of Excellence. (Yes, I know how to have a good time.) It’s…
Like many of you in local government, my inbox now serves as a full-time AI hype repository. Vendors promise the moon, Mars, and a minor galaxy if I’ll just sign the dotted line before lunch. Meanwhile, national headlines swing wildly…
AI is moving fast. Faster than local government’s project cycles, faster than our procurement timelines, and definitely faster than anyone’s comfort zone. Every week brings another shiny new chatbot, analytics tool, or vendor pitch promising to “transform” how government works.…
Van Buren County, Michigan (pop. 75,000) Discussions about AI in government often drift into the abstract, like a strategic plan that mentions “leveraging synergies” without ever explaining who’s doing the leveraging, or what exactly is being synergized. Phrases like “AI…
With a Detour Through Van Buren County’s AI Policy Artificial Intelligence is no longer the domain of futuristic novels or that one IT consultant who always insists it will “revolutionize municipal workflows.” In Van Buren County, it’s already quietly reshaping…
(I recently had the pleasure to participate on a recent panel hosted by The Elections Group and the AI & Elections Clinic) When it comes to artificial intelligence, local government discourse tends to veer between two equally unhelpful poles: giddy…
In local government, we say collaboration is key. We say it at retreats. We say it in strategic plans. We say it into microphones at ribbon cuttings for community broadband projects that took four years and six grant cycles to…
Every local government leader frets about property tax rates, millages, and the perennial “what will this mean for the voters?” question. But there’s another tax no one votes on, no one debates at a public hearing, and no one even…
In a quiet corner of Southwest Michigan, the sort of place where road names double as genealogical records, something unexpected is unfolding. Amid the cornfields and committee meetings, a pair of rural governments are attempting what might best be described…
