Cities Experimenting With AI Assistants

Americans ask Amazon's smart assistant Alexa for a lot, and now many can ask about their city's latest news, projects, and data. 

Earlier this year, the City of Johns Creek, Ga. launched a new Alexa skill allowing the AI assistant to trawl cities' open data portal, including data on crime, zoning, and public works. CityLab reports that residents can activate the skill and ask Alexa for specific information on local crime in a given neighborhood, or the zoning of a particular property. Nick O’Day, the chief data officer of Johns Creek, gives examples of commands, “Alexa, ask the city of Johns Creek for the current zoning of the property at 10700 Abbotts Bridge Road,” or, “Alexa, ask the city of Johns Creek when the next city council meeting is scheduled.”

Already, for 1 in 5 Americans, the first interaction of the morning may not always be with a human. It may instead be with Alexa, Siri, or another personal AI assistant that—in its best human-like speech—can give you the latest updates on weather and traffic. Come 2019, half of American households are expected to own a smart speaker. “The number of units that Amazon is selling is mind boggling,” said O'Day. “That was a signal to us that the public is embracing these things a lot faster than new smartphones.”

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