Appendix

This report was written by Neil Kleiman, Eric Gordon, and Mai-Ling Garcia. Ms. Garcia’s contributions to this work were made in her capacity as a Member of RethinkAI’s Civic AI Advisory Trust. Additional research and writing were provided by Lilian Coral, Anthony Townsend, Matt Steinberg, Jess Silverman, and Brenna Berman. This report was managed by Rebecca Ierardo.

Grant funding was generously provided by the Kresge Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. New America houses and is one of the founding partners of the RethinkAI initiative and provides editorial and communications support.

RethinkAI is a dynamic, cross-sector coalition of scholars, technologists, and civic practitioners united by a bold mission: to harness the power of AI to transform local governance and community development across the United States. Through original research and hands-on pilot programs with city and community leaders, we uncover what works—and then turn those insights into actionable policy recommendations and practical AI guidance for civic leaders nationwide. What began as an informal virtual working group in the spring of 2023 has since evolved into a formal collaborative committed to shepherding a transformation in governance strategy and tactics with AI.

This report draws on a series of semi-structured interviews and supporting desk research. We conducted more than 40 interviews with mayors, former local government executives, academics, funders, and civic technology practitioners. Each interview followed a structured guide but allowed flexibility to explore themes in depth. Core questions focused on:

• interviewees’ background and experience with digital services, emerging technologies, and AI;
• opportunities and risks of AI in public decision-making and service delivery;
• institutional challenges such as staffing, funding, procurement, and capacity;
• the role of partnerships with universities, philanthropy, and vendors; and
• what resources, training, or frameworks would help local governments make better use of AI.

All interviews were conducted by Neil Kleiman and Mai-Ling Garcia. Interviews lasted 45–60 minutes and were captured in detailed notes rather than recordings to encourage candid responses. We supplemented these interviews with a review of policy documents, pilots, and secondary research on AI adoption trends. Insights were synthesized across sources to identify common patterns, gaps, and opportunities, which informed the findings and recommendations in this report.

Special thanks to subject matter expert interviewees, including those below. The views in the report are solely of the authors and not of interviewees or their affiliates:

• Brendan Babb, Chief Innovation Officer, Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska
• Grace Simrall, former Chief of Innovation and Technology, Louisville Metro Government, Kentucky
• Libby Schaaf, former Mayor of Oakland, California (2015–2022); Professional Faculty, University of California, Berkeley, and Northeastern University
• Greg Fischer, former Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky (2011–2022); former United States Conference of Mayors President (2020–2021)
• Santiago Garces, Chief Innovation Officer, City of Boston, Massachusetts
• Erin McKinney, Principal Policy Counsel for State, Local, and Education Public Policy, Amazon Web Services
• Albert Gehami, AI and Privacy Officer, City of San Jose, California
• Kirsten Wyatt, Senior Director, Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, Georgetown University
• Deirdre K. Mulligan, Professor, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley
• Henry E. Brady, Monroe Deutsch Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Travers Department of Political Science and Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
• Ramayya Krishnan, W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Heinz College and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
• Michael J. Holland, Vice Chancellor for Science Policy and Research Strategies, University of Pittsburgh
• Jing Liu, Executive Director, Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society
• Chris Mentzel, Executive Director, Stanford Data Science
• Kate Weber, Executive Director, Public Exchange, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California
• Nicholas Mattei, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Tulane University; Co-Director, Tulane Center of Excellence for Community Engaged Artificial Intelligence
• Eunice E. Santos, Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
• Ahu Yildirmaz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Coleridge Initiative
• Dongxiao Zhu, Professor of Computer Science and Founding Director, Wayne AI Research Initiative, Wayne State University
• Elizabeth Langdon-Gray, Executive Director, Harvard Data Science Initiative
• Supratik Mukhopadhyay, Full Professor, Louisiana State University Center for Computation and Technology
• William Peduto, former Mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2014–2022)
• Kat Hartman, Chief Data Officer, City of Detroit, Michigan
• Tad McGalliard, Managing Director for Research, Development, and Technical Assistance, International City/County Management Association
• Harrison MacRae, Director of Emerging Technologies, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Erin Dalton, Director, Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Pennsylvania
• Sarah Williams, Director, Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism and the Civic Data Design Lab; Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning at MIT
• Stephen Goldsmith, Derek Bok Professor of the Practice of Urban Policy and Director of the Data-Smart Cities Program, Bloomberg Center for Cities, at Harvard University
• Lane Dilg, Founder and Principal, Apeiron LLC
• Jean Westrick, Executive Director, Technology Association of Grantmakers
• Kyle Cranmer, Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Dan O’ Brien, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University; Director, Boston Area Research Initiative
• Aimee Sprung, Director, Government Affairs, Microsoft
• David W. Burns, Assistant Executive Director, United States Conference of Mayors
• Christopher Jordan, Senior Specialist, Urban Innovation, National League of Cities
• Debra Lam, Founding Executive Director, Partnership for Inclusive Innovation
• Meredith Lee, Head of Strategic Partnerships and Chief Technical Advisor to the Dean, College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, University of California, Berkeley
• Azer Bestavros, Warren Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Associate Provost for Computing and Data Sciences, Boston University
• Aron Culotta, Professor of Computer Science, Tulane University; Director, Tulane Center of Excellence for Community Engaged Artificial Intelligence
• Alex Jutca, Director of Analytics, Technology, and Planning, Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Pennsylvania
• Sujeet Rao, Health and Wellbeing Practice Director, Public Exchange, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California
• Kate Burns, Executive Director, MetroLab
• Steven Wray, Executive Director, Block Center for Technology and Society, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
• Nishant Shah, Senior Advisor for Responsible AI, State of Maryland
• Lauren Lockwood, CEO & Co-Founder of Bloom Works Public Benefit LLC