Very real needs
Local authorities face a familiar equation: expanding missions, constrained staffing, residents who expect quick answers. Generative AI naturally finds its place: preparing a draft council decision, summarising a file, drafting a reply to a letter, finding a rule in internal regulations or a local zoning plan.
Data unlike any other
But the data a local authority handles is often personal, sometimes sensitive: civil records, social assistance, planning, human resources. Entrusting it to an online AI service takes it outside the authority’s perimeter, with the sovereignty questions that raises, particularly with extraterritorial laws such as the Cloud Act.
The European framework takes this into account: with the Digital Omnibus adopted in June 2026, high-risk AI systems intended for public authorities have a specific timeline, until August 2030. That delay is not an exemption: it is time to build solid uses.
Which uses to start with?
The local authorities moving fastest start with tasks that are high-volume, low-risk and easy to measure:
- Replies to residents’ letters and emails, prepared from the regulations and decisions in force.
- Summaries of council and committee meetings: minutes, records of decisions, action follow-up.
- Document search in by-laws, internal regulations, zoning plans or past contracts.
- Administrative writing: notes, presentation reports, draft decisions to review.
- Staff HR questions about working time, leave or training.
The principles of trusted public AI
- Data stays on the authority’s infrastructure or that of its trusted operator.
- Access rights follow the organisation: a staff member only sees their department’s documents.
- Every answer cites its sources, so the staff member checks before passing it on.
- A human decides: the AI prepares, the staff member validates.
- The cost is fixed, compatible with a budget voted once a year.
Public procurement as an asset
The budget question is often the first hurdle. Models billed per token or per user fit poorly with an annual budget: you have to plan for usage you do not yet know. A fixed fee, based on a server the authority keeps control of, makes spending predictable and eases the public procurement process.
Pooling is another option: a group of municipalities can run a shared server and open it to several towns, each keeping its own document spaces and permissions.
Start small, at the scale of one department
The most effective approach is often to begin with a pilot department (reception, human resources, planning), measure the time saved, then expand. Staff training is decisive: our training courses and conferences also serve local authorities, on site or remotely.
Deployed inside your walls, MIA lets staff work on the authority’s documentation without any data leaving your infrastructure.
