“Manual Intelligence” – What Cities Are Really Learning About Generative AI (GenAI)

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Thuong “Annie” Bui
July 14, 2025

Over the past few months, I’ve had the rare opportunity to sit down and talk with nearly 30 city IT leaders across Southern California, each wrestling with the same question: How should we prepare for integrating GenAI responsibly and effectively?

One of the most surprising things I learned was not how advanced some cities were, but how carefully many were choosing to begin. In a sector known for tight budgets and high accountability, that caution doesn’t just make sense. It may be a strength.

The rise of “manual intelligence” and the quiet revolution behind the city wall

One city IT director coined a phrase that stuck with me: manual intelligence. That’s what he called the hours staff spend searching file servers, skimming PDFs, drafting reports or reformatting data before it’s useful. He wasn’t complaining. That’s just naming something quietly powerful.

“Manual intelligence,” he said, “is the part no one sees. But it’s the bottleneck. That’s where GenAI could help us.”

Across departments, these repetitive tasks are everywhere. HR staff might spend hours comparing job classifications with other cities by checking dozens of websites. Finance teams manually turn billing reports into pension summaries. Writing council meeting minutes can take days to complete from scratch. This isn’t just busy work. It’s an invisible effort that keeps public services running. And in cities already stretched thin by staffing shortages, that effort is even harder to sustain. That’s where many cities see GenAI’s potential: not replacing staff but supporting them.

Despite headlines about AI chatbots or smart assistants, most of the real action right now is internal. One CIO described a use case where GenAI now summarizes utility billing data from hundreds of PDFs, a task that previously took weeks. Another built a custom GPT to help generate staff reports, saving hours of drafting time for routine agendas. Several cities are piloting GenAI on a small scale for compensation benchmarking, writing grants or automating salary comparisons across public agencies. In these experiments, GenAI is less a crystal ball and more a thought partner or assistant, helping with brainstorming, drafting or suggesting. The goal is acceleration, not automation.

Still, excitement is tempered by realism.

One challenge I heard over and over: many city staff are still not comfortable using GenAI or don’t fully understand how to do so safely. As one IT leader put it, “We don’t want to buy a $10,000 tool and only use $2 worth of it.”

That insight hits at a deeper truth: digital literacy is now part of public service. If cities want to benefit from GenAI, they must bring their people along. That means policies that clarify use and risk. It means training that builds curiosity, not just compliance.

Another quiet but essential theme? Data readiness.

Some cities are not jumping to adopt GenAI tools unless their data is clean, current and connected. “Otherwise,” one CIO said, “you’re just building a dumb bot.”

Some are stepping back and using this as an opportunity to do long-overdue data cleanup. It includes standardizing file names, organizing SharePoint folders or scanning decades of PDFs. Others are building shared repositories so their future chatbots can pull accurate answers across departments. This invisible groundwork isn’t flashy, but it is what makes GenAI useful and trustworthy down the road.

One step at a time

From these conversations, one thing is clear: cities don’t need to be first but definitely need to be thoughtful. GenAI isn’t a single tool or fix; it’s a shift in how people find, understand and act on information. Especially in government, where trust matters, stakes are high and services must work for everyone, that shift requires care. But the potential is real: time saved, errors reduced, staff focused on higher-value work and residents getting faster, clearer help.

What’s stood out to me in this research isn’t the technology itself, but the questions that most leaders are asking: What problems are we really solving? Who is this for? What would “readiness” look like? These are the kinds of questions that make public service worth studying and worth serving.

This research project is still ongoing. These are just early discoveries. But what’s inspired me most is seeing how this story of digital change is being shaped, not by hype, but by curiosity, caution and care. Most of all, by public servants eager to feel empowered, not overwhelmed, by what’s next. And that’s a story still being written. There will be more to share soon.

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Author: Annie Bui is a Doctoral Candidate in Public Administration major, where her research focus on the integration of GenAI in Local Governments. She is the current President of Student Public Administration Association (SPAA) at University of La Verne. At the same time, she works for Small Business Development Center (SBDC), a non-profit organization funded by Small Business Administration, provides zero cost one-on-one consulting services to entrepreneurs for their new and existing businesses. As both a researcher and a practitioner, she committed not just to discussing theories but to actively seeking comprehensive resources that enhance our understanding of how to leverage this technology effectively in the public sector – a sector traditionally slower to adopt technology than the private sector. Her aim is to explore practical solutions that help public leaders to catch up with this fast-changing technology by being ready and proactive in adopting it. Her monthly article series will cover various topics related to GenAI in the current local government settings. Each article is designed to give government agencies the essential knowledge and tools to prepare for an effective and responsible GenAI adoption.

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