San Francisco · 2023–present
Responsible AI for frontline city services
- Role
- Product lead
- Scope
- Four departments
- Focus
- Responsible AI, service delivery
The situation
Frontline staff were spending too much time searching across policy manuals, program pages, shared drives, and informal guidance. The information existed, but it was difficult to locate quickly and difficult to know which version controlled.
What I led
I led a four-department pilot of an AI-assisted knowledge tool, beginning with observation and source mapping rather than a technology procurement. We documented the questions staff actually received, the sources they trusted, where policy changed most often, and where an incorrect answer could materially affect a resident.
That work produced a deliberately narrow first release. The team established citation requirements, access controls, evaluation criteria, escalation paths, and human review for consequential guidance. We also assigned owners to every source included in the system and created a process for reporting and correcting weak answers.
Outcome
During the pilot, average information-retrieval time fell by 35%. More importantly, the departments gained a shared governance model for deciding when AI could assist staff—and when it should decline, defer, or require a person to decide.
What we learned
The most important product decisions concerned ownership and failure: which source controlled, who maintained it, when the system should decline to answer, and how staff could correct a result. The model was one component of a larger service.
Code for America