At Ottawa council’s finance and corporate services committee meeting on Tuesday, staff confirmed that the city has already rolled out the integration of multiple artificial intelligence (AI) tools into everyday bureaucratic processes.
In a presentation to the committee, a city representative outlined current usage of Microsoft’s Copilot, a generative AI chatbot that is available to all city workers, with early adopter analysis showing that primary interest comes from office workers. Over the last month, there were 3,239 active users; 560 average daily active users, and approximately 35 prompts submitted per user with a total of 114,538 prompts submitted over the one-month period.
The staff member noted that Copilot is mainly available for helping office workers find information and draft communications, towards the ultimate goal of boosting workplace productivity. Further, the Copilot tool available to staff members is secure and web-based.
As per a guide published by multiple departments within the City of Ottawa, entitled “Responsible use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) – Guide,” it is the responsibility of individual staff members to ensure data security. City staff should only provide information that is classified as public, and any personal information should not be included in prompts.
In addition to data security guidance, the guide also emphasizes accountability and transparency; equity and inclusiveness; validity, trust, and reliability; and human-centricity. Use case examples are provided, as well as use cases to avoid. Examples of use cases to avoid include misrepresenting AI involvement in communication or analysis, relying too heavily on AI for public communications without sufficient human oversight, and inputting raw data for analysis or summarizing.
In addition to the use of Microsoft Copilot, city staff highlighted that the City of Ottawa is also using SAP Joule, which is an AI tool that screens resumes and speeds up HR processes, as well as geospatial analytics via a vehicle with mobile mapping capabilities to inventory city assets.
