Dive Brief:
- ClearGov launched an AI-powered platform last week designed to turn city budget data into easy-to-understand budget summaries with interactive visuals for constituents, it said in a news release.
- The Financial Engagement platform also offers city finance teams AI insights into community values and budget expectations, as well as two-way feedback channels with the public that can include polls, surveys and open questions shared via web and text messaging.
- Rochester Hills, Michigan; Cleveland; Placer County, California; and Southwest Public Libraries in Ohio participated in the platform’s early adopter program.
Dive Insight:
As more local governments embrace AI’s promise of increased efficiency, public sentiment around the technology has lagged. One survey last year found that half of U.S. residents are “uncomfortable” with the government’s AI use.
In a ClearGov case study, Rochester Hills officials said they wanted to use the Financial Engagement platform to hear from a wider array of residents.
“We do have those members from the public that seem to come to every single council meeting and have their opinions, but that’s really the vocal minority,” Rochester Hills CFO Joe Snyder said in the case study. “We really wanted to get a better sense of the silent majority of residents that are out there.”
The city used an AI chatbot to field questions about its 300-page budget and received “hundreds” of resident comments within weeks of launch, spanning every major service area, including roads, public safety and parks, according to the case study.
The city’s platform, which is available year-round, includes an interactive pie chart of its expenditures and lists infrastructure investments and capital improvement projects.
The feedback channels helped the city identify residents’ desire for better pathways near schools, according to the case study, and enabled the city to turn its data into "a meaningful conversation,” Mayor Bryan Barnett said in the news release.
