AI on the Street: An Exploration of GenAI in City Ecosystems

Abstract

As city governments increasingly explore the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), this research investigates their explicit and implicit value orientations to the public. The thesis addresses two questions: (1) How are early adopters in local government utilizing GenAI in service delivery, resource allocation, and community engagement? (2) How are these implementations aligned with value-oriented outcomes? Expert interviews with 24 city leaders, vendors, and civil society organizations reveal that cities with multiple pilots for GenAI at least have dedicated organizational capacity, published policies, or evaluation processes. Most published uses focus on community engagement. Content review of 143 official city websites, press releases, and podcasts from 2024–2025 did not reveal major shifts in stated values in GenAI use cases, partly due to intermittent public-facing communication on the topic. As city pilots and communication of GenAI unfold, this study provides an illustrative map of the ecosystem of its adoption as of May 2025.