Welcome back to The Edge, CogAbility's monthly AI briefing for state and local government innovators.
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🔥 What's In This Issue
- Local wins: Louisville appoints first AI chief and pilots permitting AI, Pueblo County joins the wave, Honolulu modernizes planning.
- States step up: California launches Poppy AI assistant for employees, Caltrans expands adoption, Texas and Iowa define strategic AI use.
- Best practices: Urgent calls for responsible governance, data infrastructure frameworks, and workforce readiness strategies.
- Tools to try: OneGov deals accelerating adoption, Government Publishing Office transformation, accessibility platforms.
- Policy watch: New Jersey enshrines innovation office in law, AI preemption heats up, states tackle fake content and surveillance.
🚀 Local Innovators
- Pueblo County, Colo., Joins Localities Using AI for Permitting
Pueblo County is implementing AI technology to modernize its permitting processes, joining a growing number of localities leveraging automation to reduce approval timelines and improve service delivery. - Honolulu Is Among Cities Bringing AI to Planning, Permitting
Honolulu is using AI tools to transform its planning and permitting operations, helping to speed up housing approvals and improve transparency for developers and residents. - Louisville, Ky., appoints AI chief, announces AI permitting pilot
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg appointed Pamela McKnight as the city's first Chief AI Officer and launched a pilot with Govstream.ai to streamline permitting and development processes using AI-powered smart assistants. - Thurston County, Wash., Voter Registration Center Adds AI Cameras
Thurston County deployed AI-powered security cameras at its voter registration center to enhance safety and monitor activities during election operations.
🏛️ State Innovators
- California Looks to Drive Efficiency With AI Assistant
California is piloting Poppy, an AI assistant powered by ChatGPT, designed to help state employees streamline their work, answer questions, and improve operational efficiency across government agencies. - Caltrans Officials, Early AI Users, Look to Expand Adoption
California's Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is expanding its use of AI tools after early success, aiming to improve infrastructure management, traffic operations, and maintenance planning. - How is AI being used by state employees in Iowa? Senate bill seeks to define uses
Iowa lawmakers introduced legislation to formally define and regulate how state employees can use AI tools, addressing concerns about transparency, accountability, and appropriate use cases. - Texas Department of Transportation Updates AI Strategic Plan
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) released an updated AI strategic plan outlining how the agency will leverage artificial intelligence to enhance transportation infrastructure and service delivery. - New AI Guide in California Links Homeless Residents With Resources
California launched an AI-powered guide to help homeless residents navigate available services and resources, improving access to housing assistance, healthcare, and social services. - Ohio's School AI Policy Expected to Evolve With Technology
Ohio education officials are developing flexible AI policies for K-12 schools, recognizing that guidance must evolve as the technology and use cases continue to develop rapidly. - California Measure Would Protect Children Who Use AI Chatbots
California lawmakers introduced legislation to protect children using AI chatbots, addressing concerns about data privacy, emotional manipulation, and age-appropriate content.
📚 Insights & Best Practices
- Modernizing government: The role of AI and automation in government innovation
This analysis explores how AI and automation are driving government modernization efforts, from streamlining back-office operations to transforming constituent-facing services. - Leaders have 'urgent responsibility' on AI regulation and use, report says
A new report emphasizes that state and local government leaders have an urgent responsibility to establish AI governance frameworks, ensuring responsible use while protecting constituent rights and maintaining public trust. - AI preemption 'top of mind' for state, local tech leaders
State and local technology leaders are increasingly concerned about federal or state AI preemption laws that could limit their ability to regulate AI use within their jurisdictions. - Code for America reaches tentative agreement with worker's union, averting strike
Code for America reached a tentative labor agreement with its workers' union, avoiding a potential strike and highlighting labor relations challenges in civic technology organizations. - AI agents are swarming. Does your website need an llms.txt file?
As AI agents increasingly crawl government websites, agencies are exploring whether to implement llms.txt files to control how their content is accessed and used by large language models. - Top 10 AI Events for Government in 2026
Carahsoft highlights the must-attend AI conferences, summits, and training events for government technology professionals in 2026. - 'There's a Lot of Hype': Mississippi's CIO on AI Growth
Mississippi CIO Craig Orgeron cautions that despite the excitement around AI, government agencies must separate hype from reality and focus on practical, measurable use cases.
🦄 Tools, Apps and New Features
- How the Government Publishing Office is using AI to enhance operations
The Government Publishing Office (GPO) is leveraging AI tools to modernize document production, improve search capabilities, and streamline publishing workflows across federal government communications. - How a social media-like platform is helping state agencies streamline accessibility efforts
State agencies are using a collaborative social media-style platform to share best practices, coordinate efforts, and improve digital accessibility compliance across government services. - GSA reaches latest OneGov agreement with Broadcom
The General Services Administration announced a new OneGov agreement with Broadcom, expanding government agencies' access to enterprise software and AI-powered automation tools. - Bridge safety, real-time infrastructure monitoring targets of NYC Transit Tech Lab's latest challenge
New York City's Transit Tech Lab launched a challenge seeking AI-powered solutions for bridge safety monitoring and real-time infrastructure assessment to prevent failures and improve maintenance. - Report: Workforce shortages, security fears among biggest hindrances to agency AI adoption
A new report identifies talent shortages and cybersecurity concerns as the primary barriers preventing government agencies from fully adopting AI technologies and scaling successful pilots. - Disjointed Data and IT: What That Means and How to Fix It
Fragmented data systems and siloed IT infrastructure are major obstacles to AI success—this article outlines practical strategies for governments to integrate and modernize their data architecture. - Salesforce signs $5.5B contract with the Army
Salesforce secured a massive $5.5 billion contract with the U.S. Army to provide cloud-based platforms and AI-powered tools for military operations and administrative functions.
📄 AI Policy & Legislation
- New Jersey's innovation office first to be enshrined in state law
New Jersey became the first state to formally establish its Office of Innovation in statute, cementing the office's role in driving technology modernization and AI adoption across state government. - State, local governments urge Congress to tweak SNAP's recent changes under H.R. 1
State and local government organizations are pushing Congress to modify recent SNAP program changes, highlighting how policy shifts impact local service delivery and administrative burdens. - As AI-generated fake content mars legal cases, states want guardrails
States are pushing for new regulations to address AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic content that are increasingly appearing in legal proceedings, undermining evidence integrity and judicial processes. - 6 state and local government IT stories to watch for in 2026
StateScoop identifies six major technology trends and policy developments that will shape state and local government IT operations throughout 2026, including AI regulation and infrastructure modernization. - Worried about surveillance, states enact privacy laws and restrict license plate readers
Multiple states enacted new privacy legislation restricting the use of automated license plate readers and other surveillance technologies amid growing concerns about mass data collection. - New York State replaces AI chief, names new chief digital officer
New York State appointed a new Chief AI Officer and Chief Digital Officer, signaling leadership changes in the state's approach to technology governance and digital transformation. - New York lawmakers are ready to try regulating the AI industry again
After previous attempts stalled, New York state legislators are preparing new AI regulation bills addressing transparency requirements, algorithmic accountability, and consumer protection. - State and local governments must automate digital accessibility processes
Government accessibility experts argue that agencies must implement automated testing and AI-powered tools to ensure digital services comply with accessibility requirements at scale. - Missouri Executive Order Seeks to Advance AI Strategy, Use
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed an executive order establishing an AI strategy framework for state agencies, including guidelines for ethical use, data governance, and workforce training. - Washington County Considers Formalizing AI Surveillance Guardrails
Washington County is developing formal policies to govern the use of AI-powered surveillance technologies, balancing public safety needs with privacy protections and civil liberties concerns. - Texas expands prohibited tech list, citing cyber risks posed by Chinese Communist Party
Texas expanded its list of prohibited technologies for state agencies, citing national security and cybersecurity risks associated with products from companies linked to the Chinese government.
INNOVATION TIP: AI Safety Guardrails - Essential Controls for Local Government
As governments transition from AI pilots to deployment, implementing AI safety guardrails is critical to protecting constituent data and maintaining public trust by ensuring AI systems remain accurate, secure, safe, and on-policy.
This short piece describes the 8 most proven ways to control AI system behavior for government agencies.
NOTE: at CogAbility, we’ve developed a proprietary set of guardrails for local government agency customers in the US - contact us to learn more.
Eight Types of AI Safety Guardrails
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Grounds AI behavior in verified government information stored in special type of database compatible with AI models (a vector database). RAG prevents hallucinations by restricting the AI to only use authoritative agency documents and data in its response.
System Prompts: These are baseline instructions that dictate what the AI can discuss, define the AI’s persona and behavioral boundaries, and describe how the AI should handle sensitive requests (e.g., a benefits bot refusing to give legal advice). Unlike task-level prompts, system-level prompts are persistent and called for every AI query.
Topic & Entity Restrictions: Denied Topic/Entity Lists block restricted & off-topic subjects and named entities like personnel matters, pending litigation, or explaining how to hack a chatbot. On the other side, Topic/Entity White Lists restrict the AI’s responses to specific topics and named entities, such as zoning regulations, your local tax collector’s name, or permit requirements. Together, topic and entity restrictions keep your CogBot focused on its intended use - and nothing else.
Domain Restrictions: Domain white lists and black lists restrict the AI’s access to specific government websites and prevents it from generating content from off-limit sources.
Geo Restrictions: Ensures the AI only provides guidance relevant to its city or county jurisdiction to avoid confusion. Can also restrict foreign visitors and AIs from using your AI service.
Input/Output Filtering: Server-side logic & instructions that prevent "prompt injection" attacks and catch sensitive data leaks before they impact a user.
Human-in-the-Loop Controls: Supports manual reviews of AI responses for high-stakes outcomes such as benefit denials or permit rejections.
Operational Security: Implements rate limiting & other technical restrictions to prevent system abuse, hacking, and audit logging to ensure transparency.
Conclusion
Establishing robust governance frameworks for AI is an urgent responsibility for government leaders. Done correctly, AI safety guardrails do not slow innovation; instead, they make it sustainable by ensuring AI serves the public interest while protecting everyone’s rights and building trust.
💪 How Will AI Empower Your Team in 2026?
Our Catalog of Government AI Solutions describes the AI-powered jobs that CogBots are doing for US government agencies today.
Learn something new today?
See You Next Month :-)
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