Improving citizen services, speeding up routine tasks, and freeing up human resources for other tasks – this is what local authorities hope to achieve with artificial intelligence in administration. The topic is an important one and interest was high: The event recorded over 100 registrations, with nearly 60 participants joining online – from cities such as Lusaka (Zambia), Stuttgart, Mombasa (Kenya), Berlin, and Iserlohn.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mahdi Bohlouli from the AI company Petanux in Bonn explained the basics:
At its heart, AI’s main strength lies in its ability to analyse information, recognise patterns, create content on that basis, support decision-making, and even carry out tasks independently, he explained. In public administration, AI can thus relieve administrative processes (e.g. by automating routine tasks), facilitate urban planning (e.g. through AI-supported data analysis), improve citizen services (e.g. chatbots), and enhance cybersecurity (e.g. by detecting anomalies). However, this requires strong data protection and data sovereignty, ensured through local data storage and locally operated AI applications. Open-source products provide local authorities with cost-effective technical solutions.
municipalities must also consider ethical aspects such as transparency and accountability in AI decision-making, as well as the concerns and training needs of their staff. Clear internal guidelines, a transparent and participatory approach, cooperation between municipalities, and small pilot projects that deliver visible results help ensure a smooth and safe introduction of AI. For a start he suggested using AI for meeting minutes and AI-based knowledge management. Automating such and similar tasks can free up considerable human resources, which can be used to ease staff shortages elsewhere.
“Let AI handle the routine tasks, so you can concentrate on the complex ones,” he advised.
The example of Jakarta – presented by Andhika Ajie from the Regional Research and Innovation Centre in Jakarta – demonstrated how AI is being used to tackle the challenges of a transforming megacity.
The long-term plan, ‘Jakarta Spatial Plan Development,’ considers digitally driven development as one of three key pillars for municipal development. The corresponding framework, ‘Jakarta Smart City’ places innovation and citizen well-being at the top of its priorities. “Technology is a tool. It should enhance urban life and focus on the needs of people, “ says Andhika Ajie. Jakarta therefore pursues a collaborative process in which all city stakeholders – citizens, the media, academia, businesses, and authorities – work together.
The city has developed a so-called super app – Jakarta Kini, or JAKI for short – Andhika Ajie reported. This digital ecosystem integrates a wide variety of applications and provides residents with a one-stop platform for requesting services (such as health and social services), accessing information (such as official announcements, food prices, public transport) and reporting issues (such as infrastructure deficiencies).
Also, given Jakarta’s enormous population density, mobility and traffic management is a key area for AI applications. The city is using a CCTV monitoring service including 1,500 cameras across the city to measure crowd and vehicle density. The data serve as the basis for AI to regulate road traffic. In addition, the city is testing AI-driven real-time management of public transport through the pilot Passenger Load Intelligence System (PLIS).
Another important application focusses on flood management – urgently needed in Jakarta, which is rapidly sinking below sea level. A machine-learning-based system (a system that learns from examples and enables predictions) – analyses data on water levels and flooded areas to coordinate protective measures and emergency response efforts.
The example of Hamburg – presented by Lisa Eglhofer from the Sustainability Unit in Hamburg finally delved into the details of AI-supported development of a sustainability strategy.
In its new strategy paper, the city aims to build directly on the current implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goal, taking all existing concepts and activities into account. The database to be used is the city’s transparency portal, which however contains the impressive number of 170,000 documents. An AI analysis tool is now to assist with the time-consuming task of reviewing and processing the data. Technically, the system is based on various large language models (LLMs), such as Gemini 1.5 Pro and Flash, GPT-4, and GPT-5). For its training, the Sustainability Unit manually reviewed, grouped, and coded over 80 documents for their relevance to the SDGs.
The results are twofold: Through a dashboard, the AI now enables micro-level analysis of individual documents in terms of their links to the SDGs. In addition, the analysis tool generates fact sheets on the progress of individual SDGs or their sub-goals. The underlying process works as follows: An AI Agent Planner coordinates the research request. An AI Agent Researcher gathers the relevant data in three iterative loops. And an AI Agent Synthesizer compiles the results. These fact sheets then will serve as the basis for developing the sustainability strategy.
For the technical side, Hamburg secured funding and brought in the support of an AI agency. Thus, the project turned out to be not that difficult after all. In the future, the city intends to offer the code as an open-source product to other municipalities. The plan is also to expand the dataset, to connect the tool to budget planning data, and to make it even easier to use.
„In my experience, it’s often difficult to secure funding for sustainability. Now, that we talk about AI and digital approaches, it’s much easier to get politicians on our side.“ (Lisa Eglhofer)
The German County Association (DLT) is the national association of all 294 German counties. Its direct members are the county associations of the 13 federal states, each representing local interests at the state level. The DLT represents three quarters of all municipal service providers, around 96% of Germany’s territory, and—with 57 million residents—68% of the country’s population. Key areas of work include public services, secondary education and vocational schools, economic development, local labor market policy, social welfare, youth and healthcare systems, as well as e-government and administrative modernization.
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) represents the interests of German towns and municipalities at the state, federal, and EU levels. Through its 17 member associations, it connects and represents 11,000 large, medium-sized, and small municipalities. Core activities include political advocacy with decision-makers at federal and EU level, raising awareness of municipal concerns through media outreach, ongoing exchange of experience and information among member associations, and representation in central organizations that promote municipal interests.
The Association of Local Public Utilities (VKU) represents the interests of municipal utilities and waste management companies in Germany. Its more than 1,600 member companies operate in energy supply, water and wastewater management, waste management and public cleansing, as well as telecommunications. With their technical expertise, VKU members make substantial contributions to climate adaptation, renewable energy, and circular economy solutions. In 2023, these companies employed around 319,000 people, generated more than EUR 213 billion in revenue, and invested over EUR 19 billion.
