AI in Action: Transforming Public Services Through Real Solutions
4 Min Read
AI is often seen as a groundbreaking innovation that promises to revolutionize industries. Yet, as Steven Lee from McKinsey & Co pointed out during the recent Microsoft AI for Public Sector Webinar "When you're trying to scale across an enterprise, it's not about pure volume, it's more about transformation, and that doesn't happen by accident. It's important to be very deliberate as you scale your thinking about access, sustainability, adoption training and proficiency. It's that mentality where people see it as a journey where you tend to see successful adoption.”
The webinar was hosted by Microsoft leadership, including Heather Danforth, Vice President of Education for Microsoft in the U.S., who highlighted how AI is transforming public services. Danforth emphasized the critical role of AI in skilling programs and preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow, while James Collins, Microsoft’s Public Sector Leader for the Americas, applauded the outside-in approach of aligning services with the needs of constituents and students.
The session brought together leaders from Montgomery County, Maryland; the City of Atlanta, Georgia; and California State University, Chico to share their AI journeys. With practical insights from public sector experts and the combined support of Microsoft and Zammo.ai’s powerful AI tools, the session demonstrated how organizations across government and education sectors are leveraging powerful and innovative AI technology to drive tangible results.
Montgomery County, Maryland: Scaling Success with Monty 2.0
Montgomery County’s AI journey began during the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing long hold times for vital services. From these early challenges, the county has evolved its AI implementation into Monty 2.0, a powerful chatbot with significant enhancements. Michael Zanfardino, functional lead for the project, shared, "We had started with, and especially this 2.0 version of Monty, 3,000 knowledge base articles and dozens of dozens of languages having that chatbot propped up on the 311 website."
Recent integrations have made Monty even more dynamic. "We’ve since then, over the fall in time for both election season and leaf collection, added in new data sources. We used API calls to capture our leaf collection database, and now users can punch in their address and immediately get information on when leaf collection is going to be or when that vacuum truck’s coming down their street," Zanfardino explained. These features were expanded for elections, enabling residents to find polling stations and drop box locations with ease. Looking ahead, Montgomery County plans to incorporate updates for snow removal and bus schedules, further enhancing resident services.
City of Atlanta: Creating Meaningful Encounters for Constituents
When Jason Sankey assumed the role of CIO for the City of Atlanta, he faced a pressing issue: constituents were frustrated with clunky, confusing systems. As Sankey recalled, "We did a deeper dive with the community and heard their frustrations with the website, CRM system, and mobile app." In response, the city implemented a fully integrated CRM system powered by Microsoft and Zammo, prioritizing user-centered design and community feedback.
"We’re light years ahead of where we were when we launched in March of 2023. We recently launched in December a new fully integrated CRM system that brought all the wrap-around services," Sankey noted. The AI chatbot was expanded to include warm handoffs to live agents, addressing community feedback: "Some people still want to interact with a person, and they’re fine not being on a telephone with them, but being able to have a live interactive chat feature helps."
The city also piloted two avatar kiosks at City Hall, leveraging Azure OpenAI. Sankey described the initiative: "Now people can come to City Hall, go to an avatar, and have a conversation. That’s been one of the more exciting projects, and we’ve had good success stories around that." Future plans aim to enhance these experiences and expand AI integrations across city services.
California State University, Chico: Democratizing AI Across Campus
At California State University, Chico, the challenge was to provide consistent, high-quality support for students as the university expanded. CIO Monique Sendze explained, "We are working on developing another bot to make student advising more of a service point to address the students 24/7.”
The university replaced its incumbent chatbot with a Zammo-powered solution, enabling rapid deployment and democratized AI development across departments. According to Steve Krok, CSU Chico’s Associate Director for Enterprise Systems who led the implementation, "We learned about Zammo, which leveraged GenAI, and had one cost for an unlimited number of chatbots. The most important thing that we really liked about this approach was that IT didn’t need to be the gatekeeper to AI. We could effectively democratize AI if we could train our colleagues in the college to leverage this tool and develop their own."
Krok highlighted key integrations: "First of all, the live agent integration with Teams is awesome with an experimental feature that we’re testing, which translates if they’re not speaking English to English for the service desk and back and forth so that the service desk is fluent in many languages." Additional integrations with ticketing systems, Canvas, and Power BI ensure a seamless experience for students and staff. The bot is also designed to provide support and direct students to appropriate resources when self-harm detection is triggered.
Krok shared that the feedback they’ve received from users is unlike typical bot responses, with many appreciating the human-like feel of GenAI. Some of the standout feedback includes comments like, "Everything was straightforward," "That was very thoughtful, chatbot," "Flawless victory," and even, "I wish I could hug you."
Chico State is now developing an advising bot to assist with course selection, graduation planning, and academic success, with Sendze emphasizing the value of external partnerships: "The partnership with Microsoft and Zammo was really, really vital in also helping this move forward. I always say that if I don’t have resources internally, I look to the ability to accelerate my project outcomes by really partnering with solution providers."
A Path Forward
These case studies demonstrate that successful AI adoption is not about implementing technology for its own sake but addressing real-world challenges with measurable impact. As Steven Lee summarized, "Where we see really successful AI in public sector is when they take a top-down and bottom-up approach. Strategic and tactical at the same time. You’re starting with AI initiatives that align with the overarching mission and goals, and you really have a purpose for it."
Whether it’s improving constituent services in Atlanta, supporting students at Chico State, or responding to a public health crisis in Montgomery County, these organizations are leading the way in using AI to create enduring value for their communities.
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