Five months after releasing its “responsible AI plan” providing guidelines for the municipality’s use of artificial intelligence, the City of Seattle has tapped the brakes on the tech’s official deployment for city employees.
Mayor Katie Wilson last month paused the planned citywide rollout of Microsoft Copilot, as first reported Monday in The Seattle Times. Her predecessor, Mayor Bruce Harrell, had approved the launch before leaving office in December.
“While implementation of the technology is delayed, the education and governance work continues,” Megan Erb, spokesperson for the Seattle Information Technology Department, told GeekWire. “The City is still conducting educational roadshows for departments, as well as working to advance our foundational work in data governance and data readiness.”
In September, Seattle released its AI plan, which covers training and skill-building opportunities for city employees, and establishes a framework to facilitate and evaluate the use of AI tools in city operations. The city also conducted a pilot test of Copilot with 500 employees. The technology is available at no additional cost for Microsoft 365 users under Seattle’s enterprise agreement.
Participants reported:
- Collectively saving more than 450 hours of work per week, such as drafting communications, report preparation, document analysis and research.
- The technology proved most helpful for writing more clearly, producing faster summaries of documents and meeting notes, and quick access to policies and regulations.
- 83% said Copilot Chat provided “business value.”
- 79% said it was a positive user experience.
Seattle has been a leader in efforts to adopt next-gen AI tools, and says it issued the nation’s first generative AI policy in fall 2023. Even before the recently released AI plan, Seattle already had policies requiring “human-in-the-loop” oversight, meaning employees must review generative AI outputs before official use and disclose when work is AI assisted. The city also identified prohibited applications, such as AI in hiring decisions and facial recognition, due to concerns about bias and reliability.
Concerns about municipal AI regulations and oversight are widespread. An investigative series published earlier this year by the news organization Cascade PBS found that multiple Washington cities had limited guardrails around AI use, raising public trust and privacy concerns. Seattle was not among the cities scrutinized.
Seattle leaders in the past have framed their effort as a balance between embracing new technology and upholding their fundamental obligation to serve the public, emphasizing that AI is a tool — not a replacement for employees.
Erb said the delayed deployment of Copilot is a part of a “phased approach” to ensure “the City responsibly tests and adopts artificial intelligence tools, meets all privacy and security requirements, and deploys solutions that provide clear benefits to employees while upholding the City’s Responsible AI commitments.”
Rob Lloyd, Seattle’s chief technology officer, resigned last month, effective March 27, to become executive director of the Center for Digital Government. The city is recruiting a replacement.
In December, the city appointed Lisa Qian as its first AI Officer. Her experience includes serving as a senior manager of data science at LinkedIn, as well other tech company leadership positions.
During the fall budget process, the Seattle City Council asked the Seattle IT Department to provide quarterly reports on the use of AI, and that information will be submitted April 1.
The city previously identified 41 priority projects in which AI could potentially improve government performance and public services. Updates on those efforts will be included in the upcoming report, Erb said.
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