Two years ago last month, GovEx and Bloomberg Philanthropies launched City AI Connect, a global learning community and digital platform for cities to trial and advance the usage of generative artificial intelligence to improve public services.

Since its launch, the platform has exploded in popularity, demonstrating cities’ eagerness to explore AI. As of this month, the community has grown to more than 1,000 city-based practitioners in more than 460 cities in 47 countries. Members have uploaded more than 200 resources and created more than 300 posts over two years.

Most notably, the focus of those posts have shifted dramatically over the last years. In the first year, the largest category of posts were those about AI guidelines, as cities began to explore the new technology. But in the last year, such posts dropped by 95 percent, while posts about AI pilots jumped 350 percent and those about AI use cases and applications jumped 1350 percent.