Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has announced that the city is expanding its plans for artificial intelligence under its new 2025-2026 AI plan, which includes training and upskilling for city workers and builds partnerships with universities and technology companies.
The city’s new plan builds upon the successful implementation of its generative AI policy from 2023 that established governing principles for Seattle’s approach to AI, and now extends that to all general AI solutions, city officials said in a Sept. 11 announcement.
“Artificial intelligence is more than just a buzzword in Seattle – it’s a powerful tool we are harnessing to build a better city for all,” said Mayor Harrell in a statement. “Our new plan ensures we lead with our values, using AI to improve services, empower employees, and speed up processes like permitting.”
“By using this technology intentionally and responsibly, we are fostering a nation-leading AI economy, creating jobs and opportunities for our residents, while making progress on creating a more innovative, equitable, and efficient future for everyone,” he continued.
The new plan takes the city’s first AI policy and applies successful approaches to what the city named as its top priorities, including accelerating permitting and housing production, public safety, customer service, and accessible information.
Seattle is working with private companies and partners on its AI pilots under the new plan, which includes developing internal and public-facing chatbots, enterprise deployment of AI-powered digital assistants, and the creation of customized agents for specific departments.
How successful those efforts are will be measured by metrics outlined under the new plan, which include performance, accuracy and reliability, adoption and satisfaction, scalability, return on investment, and alignment with business goals.
A new AI leadership position will be created within the city’s IT department and will be responsible for coordinating and aligning efforts across departments under the new plan.
The plan also zeroes in on engaging the community and its youth, laying out a hackathon series to “bring together students, entrepreneurs, technologists, City staff, and community” who will build “AI-powered solutions to critical City priorities,” through rapid design, prototyping and presenting data-driven solutions.
“Partnering is absolutely the key to success,” said Rob Lloyd, chief technology officer for the city of Seattle. “In true Seattle style, we’re partnering with AI House to launch the Community Innovation Hackathon Series that invites Seattleites to help us turn responsible AI into practical solutions for Youth Connector, which improves awareness and access to mental health and well-being programs for our young people – a priority not only for Mayor Harrell and City Council, but for our neighborhoods and communities as well.”
Pointing to a quarter of the nation’s AI engineers which the city houses, the city of Seattle said that it will continue to support its workforce through partnerships with institutions of higher education – such as the University of Washington – and through public-private partnerships to create “innovation spaces that support AI startups from incubation through commercial launch.”
Building on this, the new plan includes training and upskilling that will include an introductory citywide course, workshops on data science and integrations, and a curriculum for advanced projects created through those partnerships.