In the evolving landscape of urban development and technology, Asheville stands at the forefront of integrating artificial intelligence into local governance. This North Carolina city is pioneering the use of AI tools to streamline complex tasks and enhance decision-making processes, demonstrating both the potential and challenges of such innovations.
Asheville’s Assistant City Manager, Ben Woody, frequently collaborates with a digital partner, Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, when tackling intricate community feedback and development proposals. Notably, Gemini has been instrumental in the city’s Anti-Displacement and Affordable Housing Project. During a workshop involving 18 different organizations, Gemini was able to distill the discussions into coherent summaries, proving its utility in managing dense information. Furthermore, the AI has provided insights by comparing various development projects and extracting key points from extensive academic reports.
“It’s pretty amazing how quickly it can synthesize data for you,” Woody remarked. “I find that it’s crazy accurate, and it does it so much faster. If I were an analyst, I would be worried about my future job.”
Asheville is not alone in this technological venture. Throughout Buncombe County, local governments are beginning to explore AI’s potential, albeit cautiously and without formal public-facing policies. There is a consensus among officials about the inevitability of adapting to this rapidly evolving technology landscape.
Advancing AI Adoption in Asheville
Asheville is a leader in local government AI adoption, having established a Generative AI Policy since May 2024. This policy, inspired by the GovAI Coalition in San José, California, prohibits covert biometric data collection and cognitive behavioral manipulation. According to Holly Barham, the city’s director of information technology services, this framework is designed to safeguard against potential misuse while fostering innovation.
Recently, Asheville initiated its “AI Advocates Cohort,” a group comprising IT staffers and representatives from each city department, to ensure the city’s AI endeavors remain secure and effective. The cohort is tasked with proposing a pilot AI project to evaluate operational efficiency and return on investment, without compromising employment.
Barham emphasized, “An employee may easily use AI to be more efficient, but it doesn’t mean that person won’t have a job anymore. It just means they’ll be able to get some other things done also.”
The Asheville City Council, while not directly involved in the internal AI policy, has unanimously voted to impose a one-year moratorium on data centers. Other local governments, including Black Mountain, Weaverville, and Woodfin, have enacted similar restrictions. Concerns about AI’s impact on Asheville’s cultural and economic fabric were voiced by City Council member Maggie Ullman, who stated, “We didn’t spend decades building this amazing arts community, adding to our culture, having this amazing outdoor recreation, our small businesses, so we could become a warehouse district for AI. I don’t want that future for us.”
AI Developments in Buncombe County
Elsewhere in Buncombe County, AI adoption is progressing at a slower pace. Mark Goodwin, the county’s chief information security officer, highlighted the need to protect sensitive personal data from external systems. County policy mandates that AI tools adhere to stringent data security standards to prevent compromising sensitive information.
Despite some departments’ reluctance to embrace AI due to concerns over cognitive decline among staff, others have begun to utilize AI for document analysis and regulatory inquiries. The county’s communications department received funding to enhance public records request processing using AI, hosting the software internally to ensure data security.
Goodwin and Rafael Baptista, the county’s director of strategy and innovation, discussed these initiatives at the brAIn Hub AI Summit at the University of North Carolina Asheville, drawing interest from local officials.
Small Towns Explore AI
In Buncombe County’s smaller municipalities, AI exploration is just beginning. Town managers from Biltmore Forest, Montreat, and Woodfin have employed AI for tasks like meeting minutes and policy research. Weaverville’s Town Manager Scottie Harris is notably enthusiastic, using AI to create marketing materials and concept images to visualize potential town changes.
Harris noted, “Before I pay a consultant to come in and do a streetscape project, to tell me what a design would look like, I took a couple pictures of the street and put it into AI. I can at least kind of paint a picture of what that vision would look like if we did more outdoor dining, more social districting.” However, he acknowledged the need for human oversight, as evidenced by an AI-generated flyer mistakenly listing Weaverville, California, as an address.
While formal AI policies are not yet in place for these towns, there is an expectation to establish guidelines by year-end. Kristi Nickodem, an assistant professor with the UNC School of Government, emphasizes the necessity for municipalities to define clear AI usage rules to prevent unauthorized “shadow AI usage” by employees.
“In many cases there’s this phenomenon of ‘shadow AI usage,’ where you have employees who are using it to perform day-to-day tasks, and the manager or governing board might not even be aware,” Nickodem explained. “That really stresses the need for an overarching policy for how employees are going to use AI in their work.”
