Everybody is talking about artificial intelligence (AI) — in the public and private sectors. The technology is exciting, overwhelming, and maybe a little bit scary. We get it. The rapid development in the AI space is a lot to take in, but there are a lot of positive possibilities, including improving interactions between government agencies and the residents they serve.

To better understand what role AI could play in government, McKinsey grouped AI use cases into 15 domains, including customer service optimization, digital marketing, and personalization — all areas that could transform the way government interacts with residents. 

Careful AI use can provide smart, accessible communication even with budget caps and staffing shortages.

How can government agencies use AI to serve their residents better?

Despite the potential advantages, many agencies aren’t quite sure how to implement AI (or even if they should). Here are a few ways AI can assist state and local governments in serving their residents more effectively:

Enhance resident engagement

While not a replacement for staff and in-person assistance, chatbots and virtual assistants make it easier for residents to self-serve, offering more personalized answers than older technology and guided help outside regular office hours.

AI tools can help with:

• 24/7 service: Chatbots can provide residents with access to information and services, no matter what time it is 
• Multilingual support: Translation is quicker, which means the agency can give immediate support in multiple languages, making services more accessible to non-English-speaking residents
• Personalized assistance: Personalize interactions based on a person’s history and preferences, enhancing the overall user experience
• Alerts and reminders: Send automated reminders for upcoming deadlines, public meetings, or emergency alerts, ensuring residents stay informed without manual intervention
• Customizable updates: Governments can use AI to tailor updates and notifications based on resident preferences, ensuring that communications are relevant and engaging

Improved communication

Residents expect regular updates and communication about things like community programs, new laws, emergencies, and changes to trash schedules. That’s a lot of writing: email, social media posts, direct mail, posters, etc. AI could help draft copy, keep track of the agency’s PR and communications calendar, and extract data from reports about what type of information residents are interested in. 

One big benefit of AI: It makes it easier to personalize communication and content.

• Predict future needs based on past interactions and user patterns
• Segment audiences more effectively so your team can create and surface relevant messaging
• Analyze current materials and recommend the most effective type of imagery, content, email layout, button style, etc. 

Remember those chatbots we mentioned earlier? Your staff could use an AI tool to review recent chat exchanges to identify common problems or questions. That’s priceless knowledge that can inform your agency on which resources need to be updated, whether or not your FAQ page is missing key information, and might point to operational inefficiencies.

What’s the best way to get started?

You don’t have to be all in on AI before you start seeing what it can do. Experiment with small, less critical tasks or mock-up messaging and decide whether or not you like the results. To get started using AI tools, you could try:

• Drafting social media posts
• Uploading screenshots of past newsletters, direct mail items, or some web page copy and ask AI to provide suggestions for improvement 
• Ask AI to help write a speech, create an event calendar, or put data into a chart

Feel comfortable with those tasks? Consider these bigger projects:

• Document analysis: AI can quickly review and summarize large documents, reports, or public records, making it easier to understand critical information
• Sentiment analysis: Evaluate feedback from social media, surveys, and other platforms to gauge public sentiment and identify areas needing improvement
• Trend identification: Identifying trends and common issues in resident feedback can help governments address problems and improve service delivery 

Although not without risk, AI applications can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of state and local governments, leading to better engagement with residents and more effective communication.

Perhaps the best part of AI tools is that the size of your constituency doesn’t matter. These applications can help make tiny adjustments or be developed into expansive integrations.