New report examines AI policies and inventories across California’s 58 counties and 25 largest cities, offering practical strategies to help local governments improve AI adoption and deployment
SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 11, 2026 — The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) today released a new assessment outlining how California can assist local governments to responsibly bring AI adoption to communities in a more coordinated manner while managing potential challenges around procurement, transparency, data protection, and workforce.
The report, “A California Strategy to Leverage Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Public Service Delivery in Local Government and Manage Risks,” finds that many California cities, counties and local public agencies are already exploring or using AI tools, but often without the capacity, procurement systems, data infrastructure or governance frameworks needed to evaluate those tools effectively and ensure that AI is providing significant value for their residents and the broader community.
“California is home to the world’s leading AI companies, and we are uniquely positioned to use these tools to expand human potential and solve real problems for Californians,” said Ahmad Thomas, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “Local governments are on the front lines of public service delivery. This assessment gives California a roadmap to help cities and counties adopt AI in ways that improve services, protect residents and build public trust.”
The assessment was authored by Jake Brymner, Policy Fellow at the Institute for California AI Policy, the initiative housed at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and Capstone Fellow with the UC Berkeley Center for Civility & Democratic Engagement. It draws on relevant literature, stakeholder interviews, survey findings and public examples of AI use in California local government.
“California has an opportunity to define what thoughtful public-sector AI adoption and deployment looks like,” said Ziyang Fan, Founding Executive Director of the Institute for California AI Policy at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “That means moving beyond fragmented experimentation and giving local agencies practical tools: shared standards, training, procurement guidance, testing environments and secure data infrastructure so AI can enhance public services while reducing risks.”
Across California, local agencies are already testing AI in public services with early examples showing both the promise of better outcomes and the need for guardrails:
- San Jose / Santa Clara County: The Valley Transportation Authority is using AI to improve bus travel times by optimizing transit signal priority, with reported on-time performance improvements of 18 to 20 percent.
- Los Angeles County: Public benefits caseworkers have tested AI-assisted tools to help search and summarize complex program documents, with the goal of reducing administrative burden and helping staff respond more accurately to residents.
- Los Angeles County: County officials have also used predictive modeling to identify residents at risk of homelessness before they enter the shelter system, enabling earlier outreach, financial assistance and casework support.
- Long Beach: The city’s “Elby” chatbot pilot offers a cautionary example, after the tool reportedly returned outdated or inaccurate information to residents, underscoring why public agencies need clear standards for testing, monitoring and transparency.
- Statewide: The assessment’s review of California’s 58 counties and 25 largest cities found uneven adoption of AI policies and public-use inventories, highlighting a clear opportunity for the state to help local governments move from one-off experimentation to responsible deployment at scale.
“AI adoption in local government is not hypothetical; it is already happening,” said Jake Brymner, author of the assessment. “The question is whether agencies have the information, staff capacity, procurement tools and governance structures they need to support adoption. Procurement of AI tools is not just a technical exercise. It is a policy and implementation decision that can affect service delivery, worker roles, and public accountability.”
The assessment makes the case that evaluating AI in local government requires more than asking whether a tool “works.” Public agencies must assess the public problem being addressed, the datasets being used, the product or model being procured, and the way the tool changes interactions among residents, staff and government processes.
The assessment identifies two major challenges facing local governments:
- Procurement systems have not caught up with AI. Local agencies often receive inconsistent or incomplete information from vendors about model performance, training data, treatment of personally identifiable information, data use and long-term oversight.
- Deployment requires significant change management. Agencies frequently lack internal AI literacy, have uneven data governance practices, face staff anxiety about automation, and must navigate labor and collective bargaining considerations when AI changes workflows.
The assessment also finds that California has not yet taken comprehensive action to support local government AI adoption, even as other states have begun establishing statewide public-sector AI governance frameworks. In the absence of statewide support, local agencies have begun building their own policies, inventories, training programs and procurement practices, but progress remains uneven, especially for smaller and less-resourced jurisdictions.
To address these gaps, the assessment recommends a coordinated state-local strategy.
For local governments, the assessment recommends that agencies:
- Designate AI policy leads to coordinate interdepartmental efforts.
- Create internal AI training programs for general staff and “change catalysts” across departments.
- Audit current AI uses and the datasets those tools rely on.
- Publish internal guidelines and public-facing inventories of AI uses.
- Update procurement practices to account for AI-specific risks and disclosure needs.
- Engage peer jurisdictions to share promising practices, including piggyback contracting and sandbox testing.
For state policymakers, the assessment recommends that California:
- Require the California Department of Technology to issue guidelines on information public agencies should receive when procuring AI tools.
- Fund training and communities of practice oriented toward local agencies.
- Create a state-supported sandbox program where local agencies can test AI tools using synthetic datasets.
- Pilot state-provided data storage and compute services for local public agencies.
- Update data protection laws for data held by the state on behalf of local agencies.
- Study how to scale public data storage and compute infrastructure, including potential financing mechanisms.
The assessment emphasizes that local innovation alone is not enough. While cities and counties are closest to the public services where AI may be deployed, the state can provide shared standards, training, procurement guidance, testing infrastructure and data services that individual local governments cannot efficiently build on their own.
The assessment concludes that California faces both a meaningful opportunity and a governance challenge. AI tools are already being used in local public services, and their capabilities will continue to expand. With the right state and local strategy, California can help ensure those tools are adopted in ways that improve outcomes, help residents, reduce administrative burdens, protect data and maintain public trust.
About the Silicon Valley Leadership Group
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) is the leading business association representing the innovation economy and its ecosystem. Founded by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, SVLG has worked for nearly five decades to address issues that affect the region’s economic dynamism and quality of life. Today, SVLG is focused on accelerating the next era of Silicon Valley leadership, activated by our Institute for California AI Policy (ICAP) and three new Centers of Expertise (COE): Technology & Innovation, Business Competitiveness, and Civic Impact. SVLG members collectively provide nearly one in every three private-sector jobs in Silicon Valley and contribute trillions to the global economy. For more information, visit svlg.org.
About the Institute for California AI Policy
The Institute for California AI Policy (ICAP), launched by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) in December 2023, is dedicated to shaping AI policy that advances California’s leadership in technology innovation. ICAP’s mission is to develop informed, balanced, and effective AI policy and regulatory solutions through collaboration among California educators, policymakers, industry leaders, and stakeholders. The Institute focuses on education, policy engagement, thought leadership, and issue expertise to ensure that AI adoption is human-centered, transparent, and secure, maintaining California’s role as a global hub for innovation-driven AI governance.
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