Originally published on Start at Zero on Substack.
Cities do not lack AI ideas. They lack a lawful way to try one without a two-year RFP.
I sat in the public-sector seat on an AI adoption panel last month. When the moderator asked about the number one concern in government, my answer was not the model. It was whether leadership will let a team run a 30 to 90 day pilot without a multi-year project plan attached to it.
That is the real bottleneck in most agencies I work with. Not chips. Not power. Not the model. Organizational permission. A lot of public organizations are still stuck on “are we allowed.”