How Does Milwaukee County Use AI?

Data center. (CC0)

How is Milwaukee County integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its daily operations and public services?

One supervisor is trying to raise the question at the Milwaukee County Board.

Sup. Shawn Rolland has drafted a resolution asking the county’s Information Management Services Division (IMSD) to generate annual reports outlining what AI systems or tools the county is using and what the outcomes have been.

Rolland’s resolution asks for an assessment of the new technology, explaining how it’s being implemented and what the outcomes are. It will provide policymakers a “benchmark” for AI adoption by county government, he said.

“I think the board deserves to be part of that conversation,” Rolland said during a Jan. 29 meeting of the Committee on Finance.

Adoption of the technology is advancing rapidly. A majority of U.S. adults have started using AI for work or in their private life, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Rolland said he has seen AI adoption in his own work outside of county government. In addition to his part-time board work, he works for Northwestern Mutual.

The resolution asks for examples of county contractors or services where AI is used and what effect it has. It also asks IMSD to consider how the technology affects “governance, workforce impacts, data quality, equity, privacy, and risk management.”

“The purpose of this annual report is to establish an initial benchmark to inform future policy development, budgetary decisions, and oversight related to AI,” the resolution states, “and not to mandate or direct the expansion of AI beyond what is deemed appropriate by Milwaukee County.”

Jaci Bobo, county CIO, told the Finance Committee the county has already started adopting AI, using it for county “security tools” and joining an “AI government community cloud membership.” The county has also started licensing Microsoft Copilot, an AI-powered assistant service.

However, the definition of what is and isn’t an actual AI product is “sometimes very loose,” said Deputy CIO Matt Johnson. “It can be simply modification or automation, and somebody slapped an AI marketing sticker on it,” he said.

Sup. Anne O’Connor questioned whether the report was a “realistic request,” adding that she thought the rapid advancement made the technology “a little bit like a moving target.” 

The department can produce a report on the technology it views as AI, Johnson said. The challenge will be quantifying some of the outcomes the report seeks, he said. It costs $360 per-person to license Microsoft Copilot, Johnson said. He believes the efficiency it offers outweighs the cost. “How do I prove that, or measure that, I don’t know,” he said.

O’Connor said she was concerned the report would create work for the department “that might not be meaningful” for the board.

The resolution ultimately didn’t make it out of committee. The committee voted to pause consideration while the legislation’s technical details were amended.

“I think in this conversation, in the handful of minutes we’ve talked about it, we’ve learned a lot more about the county’s use of AI than we knew about before,” Rolland said. “And I do think that this is a board level conversation that we should be having.”

Legislation Link - Urban Milwaukee members see direct links to legislation mentioned in this article. Join today