Fellowship Field Notes: Boulder #2

“I enjoy the challenge of near-constant learning required for my role… I am passionate about process improvements and finding ways to do things better and more efficiently. I enjoy helping applicants get permit issues resolved.” 

City of Boulder Planning & Development team member 

This was the response from a team member when I asked about their work as part of a recent AI readiness evaluation that I led within Boulder’s Planning & Development department. Many others echoed this sentiment. Overwhelming, when answering questions about what they enjoy doing, staff described the variety and novelty of projects and cases; solving complex or technical problems; collaborating with colleagues, other departments, and the public; and roles that let them act as a connector or resource for others. Many mentioned the visible, tangible impact of their work on the Boulder community — seeing projects completed, protecting resources, or helping applicants realize their goals. These Planning & Development team members want to use their expertise to solve problems and support their community. 

In my role as Service Innovation Fellow, I partner with both the Innovation and Technology Department and Planning and Development Services (P&DS), and my work over the past month has also led to connections within the city’s Office of Cultural and Economic Development. 

Over the past month, I have focused on:  

• Evaluating P&DS’s AI readiness through a questionnaire and structured conversations that explored the nature of everyday work for staff, the data landscape, staff’s hopes and concerns about AI, and meaningful use cases. 
• Better understanding key services and pain points for small businesses through service blueprinting and starting to prototype solutions. 

To surface meaningful, sustainable opportunities for AI-supported improvements within P&DS, we needed a stronger understanding of technical opportunities and the department’s readiness for emerging technology. Results of the evaluation pointed to a department ready for specific, bounded AI use cases. Staff hope AI can relieve repetitive, low-complexity work and support time-consuming research, and many staff framed concerns about AI as the need for appropriate, consistent guardrails and effective training. By better understanding the following — how staff enjoy using their time and expertise, tedious tasks in their everyday work, challenges in using data, existing AI use, concerns about AI, and hopes for AI support — we surfaced opportunities including supporting research, improving access to searchable code and regulations, providing plain language responses to common resident inquiries, and offering workflow-specific support for application reviews.  

Through service blueprinting of key services provided by departments across the city, we validated pain points within the business licensing, liquor licensing, and food truck licensing processes, and we identified new ones for staff and customers. A striking finding was the fatigue and mismatched expectations for prospective business owners who must navigate multiple processes and handoffs across different departments and services. In addition to licensing, some business owners must also complete administrative reviews or obtain a building permit before they’re able to open. A single city service may be only a small part of a business owner’s journey, and at the outset of starting a business, they may lack visibility into the full spectrum of processes they will need to navigate. This uncertainty can result in a prolonged process, frustration about timing, and potential additional costs for renting space while moving through the progression of licensing and permitting. 

Between these two areas of discovery, we’re seeing both internal and external-facing opportunities to incorporate AI to meaningfully improve small businesses’ experiences with the city. In partnering with staff to find ways to support their work in the key areas they’ve identified, we can address underlying process or data issues. At the same time, we can better connect dots across the spectrum of city services that a business owner may need to navigate to create a cohesive and clear experience in which they feel prepared and supported, not surprised or frustrated. We’re seeing a path forward to balance quicker external solutions with internal structural change.   

In tandem, I’ve also been working on a few other fundamentals: 

Continuing foundational data work to enable AI solutions, such as connecting a Model Context Protocol (MCP) to Copilot and Boulder’s open data and testing representative staff and public queries. 

Gathering community perspectives on city data and AI through both informal interviews with community and nonprofit leaders and the formal city Emerging Technology Taskforce, a small group of local experts working with IT team members to discuss issues and opportunities within AI and emerging technology more broadly. 

As we continue discovery and prototyping over the next month, I’m keeping some questions top of mind: 

• How can we continue our foundational work and harness the MCP in a way that prioritizes the needs of both staff and community? 
• How might we continue to use moments of shared discovery and ideation to strength connections between departments, where many handoffs occur in city services? 
• How might we approach community engagement and resident research in a way that accomplishes research and design goals, builds genuine connections, and meets community where they are when it comes to attitudes and knowledge about AI? 
• The AI readiness evaluation with P&DS revealed attitudes and specific technical opportunities that are informing data needs, AI use cases, and AI training; can we scale this type of discovery across the city to identify common needs and sentiment? 

As we prototype and test key opportunities, I’m excited to build on connections with small businesses and permit applicants and engage them to refine solutions together, and to continue to collaborate with staff to understand the nuances of their work and design solutions together. Later this month, I’m looking forward to connecting with others in the Responsive Cities Network to learn and discuss ideas and evaluate solutions together.