AI training program fuels an especially lean staff in San Jose, Calif.
This week, San Jose city officials celebrated the graduation of the latest cohort of public employees from its AI Upskilling Program, a 10-week training course designed to help staff use artificial intelligence responsibly and effectively deliver services.
Launched last year with San Jose State University, the AI-training program offers customized instruction for projects dealing with topics like infrastructure, transportation, health and human services and education.
Albert Gehami, San Jose’s digital privacy officer, said city departments that have participated have reported productivity gains of up to 20%, which, he estimated, translates to between 10,000 to 20,000 work hours saved, and cuts of $50,000 in consulting costs.
“We take the people that are hesitant, but they’re willing to try, and over the course of 10 weeks, we take them from zero understanding of AI to building their own AI assistants that they can share with the rest of their team,” Gehami told StateScoop in a recent interview.
Graduates of the program have already put their new skills to use in ways that directly benefit residents. One employee used used a custom AI assistant to secure a $12 million Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant from the federal Transportation Department, to install 14 fast chargers and 109 Level 2 chargers at 12 city-owned locations.
Another employee created an AI tool to analyze previously uncategorized 311 service requests, saving hundreds of staff hours. The tool automatically identifies recurring themes, such as “Junk Removal” and “Water Issues.”
“We get over 300,000 requests every year from 311, and over 30,000 of those go unclassified, which is really important for us, because if we can’t categorize it, we can’t route it to the right place to serve them quickly,” Gehami explained.
Stephen Caines, the city’s innovation lead, said that though the training program is designed to improve public services, it also benefits employees by giving them tools to help reduce their workloads. He noted that San Jose, which has a population of roughly 1 million, only has about 7,000 city employees, making it one of the leanest city halls in the country.
“It’s really about leveling the playing field, using technology as a force multiplier to not only provide a higher quality of level of service to our residents, but also protect the sanity and the well being of our employees,” Caines said. “Being able to utilize these novel tools creates some space where folks can have a better work life balance.”
Caines said the program also aims to give city workers the opportunity to solve problems and have ideas originate from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down.
“It’s a recognition that the executives are not the only people that have good ideas, that the people are on the front line know how to do their work best,” Caines said. “They can likely identify process improvements far better than a director that’s likely never sat directly in their chair.”
Caines added that the city also supports AI literacy through partnerships with local universities and workforce boards, leveraging Silicon Valley’s tech resources. For example, the San Jose Public Library offers courses on artificial intelligence. The city plans to scale up the program to 1,000 employees — roughly 15% of its workforce — by 2026, with a focus on high-impact departments like transportation, IT and public works.
Other cities are advocating for AI training, too. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration last January directed the Office of Information Technology Services to provide its employees “basic education about how AI can be safely used in the workplace to improve productivity and efficiency.”
