Van Buren and St. Joseph Counties are embracing artificial intelligence to improve public services, increase accessibility, and save tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars. Through a collaborative local government initiative, county technology teams are building custom software and utilizing AI to operate more efficiently than ever before. Here is a look at some of the recent groundbreaking updates from the counties’ joint technology task force.
A $50,000 Win
Making sure public documents and digital platforms are fully accessible to all citizens, including those using screen readers, is a top priority. To meet strict ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance standards for public documents, the counties faced an industry-average outsourcing cost of about $2 per page. If outsourced, this would have cost a combined total of approximately $50,000 to remediate the documents for both counties.
Instead of outsourcing, the county digital technology team built a custom automated software pipeline internally. This AI-driven system successfully processed and remediated nearly 10,000 pages for St. Joseph County and roughly 15,000 pages for Van Buren County. The system even used AI vision models to read previously inaccessible scanned images and write accurate text descriptions. The final cost to process all of these public documents internally? Only about $50 in AI processing fees.
Beyond just the documents, the team has successfully updated the St. Joseph County website to be ADA compliant, and the newly remediated files are already live for the public. Meanwhile, Van Buren County citizens have an exciting update on the horizon: a brand-new county website will be rolling out soon, and all of the newly remediated documents will officially go live alongside the launch.
Tracking our Progress
To ensure full transparency with the community, the county digital technology team has also launched new public-facing accessibility dashboards on the county websites. These dashboards allow citizens to directly track the counties’ ongoing efforts, see exactly what work has been done, and monitor our progress in making both web pages and digital documents fully accessible to everyone.
Van Buren County Accessibility Dashboard | St. Joseph County Accessibility Dashboard
Working Smarter with Digital Research Assistants
County staff are also utilizing highly secure AI tools like NotebookLM to streamline daily administrative tasks. Unlike standard AI chatbots that can hallucinate or share incorrect information, this tool acts as a private research assistant that only reads the specific documents provided to it.
This allows county staff to work much faster. For example, processing massive monthly meeting packets for the Board of Commissioners used to take hours of reading; now, staff can use AI to generate a beautifully summarized activity report in just 20 minutes. Furthermore, Google does not use any of the counties’ uploaded, private data to train its public AI models, ensuring all information remains secure.
Leading a Statewide Network (MI-GAIN)
What began as a local initiative has now sparked a statewide organization. The Michigan Government AI Network (MI-GAIN) is rapidly expanding, bringing together organizations, cities, and townships across the entire state of Michigan to collaborate on using AI in local government. The counties are proud to be at the forefront of this technological expansion.
In-House Zoning Intelligence Platform (ZIP)
One of the most exciting new developments is the Zoning Intelligence Platform, or ZIP. Built completely from scratch by county staff using AI coding tools in just a couple of days, ZIP is a custom application that seamlessly links interactive mapping (GIS) with artificial intelligence and local zoning laws.
Once fully rolled out, this tool will make navigating local zoning ordinances significantly easier. Users can pull up a property and ask complex questions, such as, “Can I have a zebra on my parcel?”. The AI analyzes the parcel data, reads the zoning laws, and provides an instant answer linked directly to the specific ordinance text. Furthermore, ZIP can visually analyze aerial imagery of the land, perform complex distance measurements, and even help auto-fill zoning applications.
By building powerful applications like ZIP internally, the counties maintain complete control over their software at a fraction of the cost of outside vendors, opening the door to building even more innovative, cost-saving tools for the community in the future.
