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AI & Your Website

Help AI give residents accurate answers about your municipality, and use it where it genuinely saves time.

Why it Matters

More residents now ask AI assistants instead of searching your website, and those answers are only as good as what you publish. Clear, current pages help AI get it right. A few careful uses of AI can also save staff time, as long as people check the results and personal information stays protected.

When checked against your published information, do AI assistants provide accurate answers to common questions about your municipality?

When it's working well

AI assistants give accurate answers about your municipality because your site is clear, current and easy to read. Key facts like dates, fees and contacts are written as text, not only in PDFs or images.

A quick win

Ask two or three AI assistants your most common resident questions and record any incorrect answers. Update the pages they likely drew from, so dates, fees and contacts are current and written as text. Check again every few months.

Ideas that help

Answers from your own content

OPTIONAL AI TOOL

Help people get quick, accurate answers drawn only from your own website and documents.

Residents often ask the same questions in different words. Better search or an AI assistant can match those questions to the right page and give a short answer with a link to the source. It only works as well as the content underneath, so clear, current pages come first.

AI answers should:

  • Answer only from approved municipal pages and documents.
  • Link every answer to its source page.
  • Say clearly when it doesn’t know, and point to a person to contact.
  • Avoid collecting personal information in the conversation.
  • Let staff see common questions and fix the pages behind wrong answers.
An AI-assisted Ask the Town box. A resident asks when garbage day is on Elm Avenue, and the answer links to the town's waste collection schedule as its source.

Meeting and document summaries

OPTIONAL AI TOOL

Help people understand long agendas, minutes and reports without reading every page.

Council packages and reports can run to hundreds of pages. AI can draft a short plain-language summary of what was discussed or decided, which staff check before it’s published. The full official record stays available alongside it.

AI summaries should:

  • Draft summaries for staff to review and approve before publishing.
  • Label summaries clearly as summaries, not the official record.
  • Link each summary to the full document.
  • Highlight decisions, dates and next steps.
  • Keep the wording plain and neutral.
An 86-page council agenda turned into a short AI-assisted summary of three key decisions, marked as a draft checked by the Clerk.

Request triage

OPTIONAL AI TOOL

Help get each resident report to the right team, even when the wrong category is picked.

Residents describe problems in their own words and don’t always pick the right category. AI can suggest a category and team from the description or photo, so fewer requests sit in a general inbox. Staff stay in control and can correct any suggestion.

AI triage should:

  • Suggest a category and team from the resident’s description.
  • Let staff confirm or correct each suggestion.
  • Flag urgent issues, such as safety hazards, for faster attention.
  • Improve from staff corrections over time.
  • Keep personal details out of tools that don’t need them.
A resident's message about a broken streetlight. AI suggests the category and location, and a staff member confirms or changes it before it is sent to Utilities.

Plain-language and translation help

OPTIONAL AI TOOL

Help staff write clearer content and offer it in more than one language.

Writing in plain language takes practice, and translation can be slow and costly. AI can suggest simpler wording and draft translations while staff write. A person always reviews the result, especially for legal, safety or official content.

AI writing help should:

  • Suggest plainer words and shorter sentences while staff write.
  • Draft translations of common pages and notices.
  • Have a person review every translation before it’s published.
  • Have the right staff check official or legal wording.
  • Follow your style guide and preferred terms.
A wordy notice rewritten with AI help as a plain sentence, The pool is closed for repairs from November 3 to 10, with an English and French switch and a note that staff review it before posting.

Foundations

AI use policy and data handling

FOUNDATION

Set clear rules for how staff use AI and what information it can touch.

Staff may already be using AI tools for writing, summaries or research. A short policy helps them use these tools safely, protects residents’ personal information, and makes clear who is responsible for what gets published.

Things to consider:

  • Which AI tools are staff allowed to use?
  • What information must never go into an AI tool?
  • Who reviews AI-assisted content before it’s published?
  • Where does information go when staff use these tools?
  • How will residents know when AI was used?
A town's AI use policy with five rules: people review AI drafts, no personal information in AI tools, tell residents when AI is used, use only approved tools, and review the policy every year.

Also consider

How well does your website work for residents?

Take the free check-up. In about 20 minutes you'll walk through everyday situations, like reporting a pothole or finding a council agenda, and get a plain-language check-up report of what's working and what to tackle first.

Start the check-up

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