“Generative AI (artificial intelligence) is not just the wave of the future, it is the wave of today. You hear about its uses in every sector of life. Government, which ideally should aim for peak efficiency, is using AI at very different levels. The state has taken initiative to utilize it, offering increasing opportunities for agencies to incorporate it into what they do. County and municipal governments, though dabbling, still seem to have a ways to go.
“It’s not that they don’t want it, it’s that they don’t understand it just yet,” shares Mt. Arlington Mayor Mike Stanzilis, who also works as a consultant on AI implementation and integration. Stanzilis serves on the Board of New Jersey League of Municipalities (NJLM) and the NJ Conference of Mayors, and organized panels on AI at the past two NJLM conferences. He often hears municipal staff voice fears of having their jobs replaced by AI.
“Right now, no one thinks they need AI, they don’t want it and there’s no pain point, …no one is saying they need an AI model, but once it becomes apparent how good this is, there will be a pain point. The early adaptors will lead the way, and other towns will want it.”
Mt. Arlington is one of those towns jumping in, having already integrated an AI chatbot into its municipal website to help locate detailed answers to residents’ inquiries quickly. It’s their AI Ambassador, as Stanzilis likes to call it, an outward-facing utilization.”
Read more about Mayor Stanzilis’ view of the future of AI in Municipal Government: https://princetonperspectives.com/is-artificial…/