Local government leaders are still in the early stages of adopting artificial intelligence, surveys have found. But when the quickly evolving tech is used, most municipal leaders’s goal is to improve efficiency and allow it to take over repetitive tasks.
Anne Arundel County, Maryland, is testing that theory by integrating AI into the case management system for its Office of Community Engagement and Constituent Services through Amazon Web Services, the tech company announced in a blog post Monday.
The integrated AI tools summarize voicemails, emails and letters from constituents and automatically categorize each case, tasks the county said could previously take 45 minutes or more — a particular challenge for a constituent services team that spends more time out in the field than at their desks.
The AI can transcribe, summarize and categorize audio files in under 20 seconds, according to the service. Stacey Fitzgerald, Anne Arundel’s constituent services coordinator, said in the blog that the time it takes to process voicemails has “significantly improved” with less data to manually enter.
Multiple major cities have embraced AI for efficiencies such as speeding up permitting and procurement processes. Hernando County, Florida, announced last year that it had trimmed its zoning review process for single-family homes by 93% using AI.
Anne Arundel County’s development team built its own middleware for its proprietary ticketing system that tracks resident concerns, which allowed it to connect its case manager to the AI.
The county uses Amazon Bedrock Guardrails, which sets boundaries for the AI and is designed to safeguard against harmful content and AI hallucinations. Algorithms through Bedrock also mask sensitive data — such as phone numbers or addresses — before they reach Amazon, according to the company.
“The county administration pushed us to set up responsible AI policies, establish test environments, and figure out how to do this right,” county CIO Jack Martin said in the AWS blog.
One of those policies is staff oversight, sometimes referred to as having a “human in the loop.” So while the AI can make suggestions, county staff have final approval and can edit or adjust any AI summary or proposal.
“It’s a human support system, rather than a replacement product,” Thomas Mann, software developer and project manager for the county, told AWS.
Some local governments have used AI for public-facing services, such as chatbots, but Anne Arundel has so far kept the technology internal. While public sector interest in AI is high, public approval of AI in government so far is generally low, a survey found last year.
But focusing the technology on repetitive tasks can pay off in time savings for counties, Mann said in the AWS blog.
“Citizens will appreciate the improved responsiveness without knowing what specific technology is used behind the scenes,” Mann said.
