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AI Optimism

Municipal AI Use Cases

Municipal AI Use Cases

We wanted a place where we could track and share the most interesting Canadian municipal use cases for AI - so here it is, a simple, list of interesting uses of AI in the municipal setting.

AI Optimism

It shouldn’t surprise you that we are AI optimists. Read more about the Perry Group take on AI in our article - AI Won’t Wait for your Municipality to be Ready

Our AI Services

Practical AI adoption – from strategy to results – built specifically for municipalities

Stage Need What we do Our services Benefits
1. Strategize AI Framework & Strategy
Know where you are and where you are going
  • Work with your leaders to help understand risks and opportunities and define your AI position
  • AI readiness / maturity assessment
  • Build a Responsible AI Framework for your organization that tells staff what's allowed, what's encouraged and what's off limits
  • Establish the 'approved' tools, use cases and draw clear red-lines — what staff absolutely cannot do
 Consulting Services
Assess readiness, lead development of AI framework and strategy		 Walk away with a clear, council-ready AI strategy, documented policies your staff can follow, and confidence that your municipality is protected.
2. Mobilize Building AI Capability
Get your people ready
  • Identify AI champions across your organization and give them the tools and training to experiment responsibly
  • Champions share what's working, and momentum builds department by department
 Training Services
  1. Responsible Municipal AI Use
  2. Advanced Municipal AI Use Courses
 Your staff stop fearing AI and start using it. Champions drive adoption from the inside, reducing your dependency on outside help over time.
3. Operationalize Real-world AI Adoption
Make it stick — deliver real value
  • Embed AI into how your team works
  • We coach department teams through real business problems — identifying use cases, testing what works, and building repeatable practices your staff own going forward
 Coaching Services
1 to 6 ratio coaching around business focused use cases		 Measurable outcomes. AI that solves real problems — not pilots that go nowhere.

1.    Infrastructure Inspection, Maintenance & Asset Management

  • CityRover – pothole detection and transit stop condition assessment

  • City of Calgary – AI prioritization of road maintenance work using imagery from traffic cameras (pilot)

  • City of Vancouver – Esri/GeoAI models automate data extraction from aerial imagery (e.g. pavement linework, unpermitted pools and decks)

  • Toronto Water – drones, IoT, and AI/ML for water quality checks and leak detection

2.     Permitting, Inspections & Regulatory Compliance

  • Archistar – zoning compliance and building code compliance pre-checks

  • City of Edmonton – AI predictive model reduced eligible inspections by 37%; low-risk inspections are passed automatically, eliminating unnecessary delays for builders

3.     Transportation, Parking & Traffic Operation

  • Town of Newmarket – AI-based cameras for parking occupancy monitoring

  • Guelph, Brampton, and others – automated licence plate recognition for parking enforcement

4.     Public Safety, Emergency Services & Security

  • Durham Regional Police – AI-assisted video redaction for privacy compliance

  • Durham Regional Police – AI analysis of body-worn camera footage to identify unprofessional or dangerous behaviours

  • Various municipalities – algorithmic and AI-driven security threat detection

5.     Environmental Monitoring & Climate Resilience

  • City of Edmonton – AI predictive model reduced eligible inspections by 37%; low-risk inspections are passed automatically, eliminating unnecessary delays for builders

  • BC municipalities – SensNet AI sensors for wildfire prediction

6.     Citizen Service & Public Engagement (see below)

  • City of Kelowna (and many others) – AI-powered resident chatbots

  • Cludo.ai – LLM-based AI website search for municipal websites

  • MISA BC – live AI transcription providing real-time closed captioning at conferences

  • City of Waterloo - Web Content Reviewer - bot to review and improve web content to meet style and accessibility best practices before posting.

7.     Internal Administration & Workplace Productivity

  • Various municipalities – meeting recording and summarization tools (e.g. Teams, Gemini, Zoom, Copilot) to capture action items and distribute to participants

  • Various municipalities – AP automation for invoice data extraction

8.     Other Use cases

  • City of Calgary (HR) – AI-assisted recruitment screening

  • Township of Stormont – AI and road network data used to generate optimal garbage truck routes

  • Town of Innisfil – partnering with GovAI on AI initiatives

Commonly Emerging User Facing Use Cases

We can definitely see some common use cases emerging in the municipal web space. Here’s a few of those with links to examples:

AI-powered website assistants

AI-powered building/planning assistant

AI-powered website search