ChatGPT Gov offers another option to boost employee productivity

Generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT have caused more excitement in state and local governments than almost any other tool or software item in recent memory.

Employees use the technology to help them draft communications, prepare for public meetings, find information and help draft what were traditionally long and repetitive documents like staff reports or procurement solicitations, among other uses. Minnesota and Pennsylvania have been among the states to pioneer generative AI’s use, with others working quickly to train their employees on the technology so they can properly harness it.

Some states and localities have signed contracts with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to formalize those relationships, and now the company has responded to the growing public sector demand with its new ChatGPT Gov offering. Agencies can use it within Microsoft Azure’s cloud, which is already subject to stringent cybersecurity frameworks, and company leaders say it can help make agency employees work better.

“By adopting AI, government agencies can work smarter, faster and more creatively,” Kevin Weil, chief product officer at OpenAI, told reporters on a recent press call. “AI has the power to transform how public services are delivered, to improve the efficiency of our operations and to help policymakers better understand and responsibly use the technology to serve the American people.”

For state and local agencies, it represents an interesting opportunity to work even closer with generative AI, which could save them billions of dollars in productivity gains according to previous research.

State and local governments may be the ones who benefit the most, said Beth Noveck, director of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University, with the release also showing an “interest in and focus on the government sector” among vendors.

“State and local [government] is going to benefit most significantly from these tools, because it's state and local that have the most direct contact with citizens, that deliver services to citizens and that can most benefit from tools that can help them interact with, listen and to be in conversation with the people they're serving,” Noveck said. “It's also state and local that are the most under-resourced in many cases and desperately need the added helping hand that comes from tools that can help them with synthesizing information, creating first drafts again. It's all about helping government workers be more productive, and do their jobs more easily.”

Already, governments at all levels have learned a lot about the power of generative AI, and this new offering from OpenAI should reinforce those learnings. Asha Palmer, senior vice president of compliance solutions at software training company Skillsoft, said the technology has already shown itself to be a helpful assistant that can provide more organizational efficiency. That could be through finding information for someone that may otherwise have been difficult to find, or by providing the first draft of communications that previously would have to be done manually.

And generative AI has proven itself to be a useful training tool for various scenarios that employees may find themselves in. Before, Palmer said government training could feel like a “one-way street,” but generative AI has helped make some training feel more collaborative and engaging.

“I can tell you how to receive a harassment report, and you can say, ‘Yes, I can do it,’” she said. “But once you are there on the other side of receiving that harassment report, what do you do? What do you say? How do you say it? And how do you say it to someone who may be defensive, or someone who may be timid or someone who may be scared? Generative AI allows you to be able to practice those conversations in safe environments. It's one thing to tell someone what to do, and it's one thing to allow them to practice it.”

Keeping up robust training programs on generative AI will be crucial. Already, for example, New Jersey has trained several thousand of its employees on the technology, while Pennsylvania is among those to have signed up for free training for its workers. Getting people comfortable with generative AI — familiar with how to use it and its various terms — is still a big first step on that journey.

Then as more agencies get used to it, they must be willing to share their stories and best practices, Palmer said.

“What we've learned is things like additional certifications are helpful in bridging that trust gap, so that people do take the lead to use it,” she said. “I hope that increases, and that those stories of people's success in using it will then lower other people's fears of using it.”

All the while, states are reckoning with DeepSeek, a Chinese company that released its first open source AI-driven chatbot last month and quickly surpassed ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on several app stores. DeepSeek’s use has already been banned on several states’ government devices and networks, including New York, Texas and Virginia, and Noveck said ChatGPT Gov’s release might partly have been to stop people “getting too excited about an open source, free model.”