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— Outgoing GovEx Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes reflects on a momentous year for cities and data
— While the characters in Dr. Strangelove, referenced in the title of this episode, grappled with the invention of the atomic bomb, cities in recent years have only tentatively explored the potential of artificial intelligence to benefit residents. As outgoing GovEx Executive Director Amy Edwards Holmes discusses in this episode, many cities pivoted in 2024 – with GovEx support – to develop thoughtful use cases for AI, based on solid data and comprehensive data strategies. As Holmes prepares to move on, she also discusses the progress GovEx has made in recent years and the crucial work that lies ahead.
Amy Edwards Holmes, who joined GovEx as Executive Director in 2022, stepped down from the position on Feb. 7. Before she left, she recorded an episode of our GovEx Data Points podcast, reviewing changes to the way cities are using data and what we can expect to see in the future.
“I definitely think that AI is the story of the year and the pace of AI adoption has really picked up in cities and the public sector at large,” Holmes said in the episode, called “2024: The Year Cities Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI,” which you can listen to above. She described how city officials’ posts to GovEx and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ City AI Connect platform changed since the platform launched in late 2023.
“Early posts that we saw on the platform were largely about establishing guidelines for using AI,” she said. “There were a lot of concerns being raised and reservations about, how do you overcome the risks, how do you assess risk, how do you build skills in the workforce, and generally a lack of clarity around how they should pursue and adopt this type of innovation and technology. But in 2024, we saw a pivot. More and more cities said, okay, we know what this is, we are solidifying how it can be used in our cities, we have guidelines in place, now we can operationalize how we move forward on AI.”
Holmes joined two other podcasts in recent weeks, the GovNavigators Show with Robert Shea and Adam Hughes and Engaging Local Government Leaders’ GovLove Podcast.
With Holmes’ departure, Latricia Boone, GovEx’s Senior Director of Partnerships is serving as interim executive director.
