City leaders are eager to deploy AI, but the real opportunity lies in preparation: building the right organizational structures, expertise, and culture first.

Host Stephen Goldsmith speaks with Teddy Svoronos, senior lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, about how to structure your city government for Agentic AI, why small, empowered teams work better than broad rollouts, and what mental models and skills leaders actually need to manage this new relationship with AI tools.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why creating a data-driven culture before AI deployment is the critical first step
• How to start with a small, driven team to stress-test AI capabilities in your organization
• What "cognitive debt" means and why managing it prevents costly AI mistakes
• Why domain-specific expertise becomes more important, not less, as AI gets more powerful
• How to balance the tension between AI utility and maintaining organizational control
• What guardrails, monitoring, and evaluation mechanisms cities need in place from the start

Guest:

• Teddy Svoronos – Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Listener Survey: bit.ly/datasmartpod

Music credit: Summer-Man by Ketsa

About Data-Smart City Solutions

Data-Smart City Solutions, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, is working to catalyze the adoption of data projects on the local government level by serving as a central resource for cities interested in this emerging field. We highlight best practices, top innovators, and promising case studies while also connecting leading industry, academic, and government officials. Our research focus is the intersection of government and data, ranging from open data and predictive analytics to civic engagement technology. We seek to promote the combination of integrated, cross-agency data with community data to better discover and preemptively address civic problems. To learn more visit us online and follow us on LinkedIn.

City leaders want to innovate, but most are stuck solving yesterday's problems with yesterday's tools. Real breakthroughs come from fundamentally changing how governments listen to communities.

Host Stephen Goldsmith speaks with Dr. Francisca Rojas, executive director of the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins, about how technology and design are helping cities understand what residents actually need—and why legacy systems are the real barrier to change.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Savannah used digital mapping to uncover flooding problems FEMA data missed by listening to residents
• Why the Maryland Community Business Compass uses AI to democratize information for small businesses
• How digital twins help communities imagine and approve projects like affordable housing before they're built
• What Baltimore learned by reframing vacant housing as both a rehabilitation problem and a prevention problem

Listener Survey: bit.ly/datasmartpod

Music credit: Summer-Man by Ketsa

About Data-Smart City Solutions

Data-Smart City Solutions, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, is working to catalyze the adoption of data projects on the local government level by serving as a central resource for cities interested in this emerging field. We highlight best practices, top innovators, and promising case studies while also connecting leading industry, academic, and government officials. Our research focus is the intersection of government and data, ranging from open data and predictive analytics to civic engagement technology. We seek to promote the combination of integrated, cross-agency data with community data to better discover and preemptively address civic problems. To learn more visit us online and follow us on LinkedIn.

AI is being deployed across courts, police departments, and corrections systems. Without the right guardrails, it could amplify existing biases. But, with care and attention, there are opportunities to improve the experience of people within these same systems.

Host Stephen Goldsmith speaks with Dr. Andrea Headley from Georgetown University's Evidence for Justice Lab about what governments need to know about AI in criminal justice, how to identify and reduce bias, why transparency matters for public trust, and the devastating consequences when humans aren't in the loop.

Guest:

• Dr. Andrea Headley – Associate Professor, Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy; Director, Evidence for Justice Lab

References:

• The Justice and Artificial Intelligence Tracker

Listener Survey: bit.ly/datasmartpod

Music credit: Summer-Man by Ketsa

About Data-Smart City Solutions

Data-Smart City Solutions, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, is working to catalyze the adoption of data projects on the local government level by serving as a central resource for cities interested in this emerging field. We highlight best practices, top innovators, and promising case studies while also connecting leading industry, academic, and government officials. Our research focus is the intersection of government and data, ranging from open data and predictive analytics to civic engagement technology. We seek to promote the combination of integrated, cross-agency data with community data to better discover and preemptively address civic problems. To learn more visit us online and follow us on LinkedIn.