How AI Is Helping Government Companies in Columbus Cut Costs and Improve Efficiency

Ohio's state government has turned AI into a practical tool for Columbus-area agencies facing sprawling rules: under a 2022 law the Ohio Common Sense Initiative used Deloitte's RegExplorer to scan centuries of code, identifying roughly 2 million words and 900 obsolete rules and removing about 600,000 words from the building code to date - moves the state projects will save $44 million and 58,000 labor hours by 2033.

By pairing text‑analytics tools with a small human review team, InnovateOhio and the lieutenant governor's office have cut in‑person and paper‑filing requirements and made regulatory review measurable and repeatable; see the Ohio Common Sense Initiative and RegExplorer coverage for details and the InnovateOhio launch announcement for background.

“Regulations, while well intended, have consumed our time and our resources as they pile up on one another over time... It's never been anybody's job to clean it up... We have made it our job to clean it up.” - Jon Husted

Ohio's regulatory clean‑up pairs Deloitte's RegExplorer with the state's Common Sense Initiative to turn exhaustive text review into concrete savings: the AI flagged roughly 2 million words and about 900 obsolete rules and has already removed some 600,000 words from the building code, while a small review team in the lieutenant governor's office vets AI candidates with agency experts so changes are legally actionable; this mix of automation plus human checks has cut in‑person and paper‑filing mandates and is projected to save $44 million and 58,000 labor hours by 2033, with the state on track to eliminate roughly 5 million words overall - see the Ohio Common Sense Initiative and reporting on RegExplorer for the project details.

“AI provides ‘an unprecedented opportunity to use AI tools to eliminate regulations, to make them more easily understandable, and thus make them easier to comply with... creating a culture of reform that no one human being or human beings can do on their own. An AI tool can do what it would take human beings years to do.'” - Jon Husted

Ohio's AI-driven clean‑up delivers quantifiable returns: Deloitte's RegExplorer flagged roughly 2 million words and about 900 obsolete rules, and the state projects that statutory updates will yield $44 million in taxpayer savings and 58,000 labor hours by 2033 - a dramatic payoff when the RegExplorer license itself cost roughly $500,000.

Small changes already show outsized impact; a single shift by the Ohio Department of Taxation from certified mail to electronic communication is estimated to save about $3.4 million per year.

For Columbus agencies that face similar administrative drag, this combination of automated text‑analysis plus targeted human review turns an opaque compliance burden into measurable dollars-and-hours reductions and creates room to refocus staff on core services (see reporting on the Ohio Common Sense Initiative, RegExplorer coverage, and Crain's summary of the InnovateOhio effort for details).

“Regulations, while well intended, have consumed our time and our resources as they pile up on one another over time.” - Jon Husted

Columbus planning and operations teams can apply off‑the‑shelf AI to concrete tasks: generative models and copilots speed permit review and citizen Q&A, meeting‑transcription services capture actionable minutes for fewer staff hours, and design‑optimization tools automate site layouts so planners can compare many alternatives quickly - Delaware, Ohio used TestFit to generate “100 different iterations” for a mixed‑use proposal - while tree‑canopy and GIS deep‑learning tools produce city‑scale environmental metrics without costly manual surveys.

Practical toolsets cited for municipalities include chatbots and content assistants (ChatGPT / Microsoft Copilot) for front‑line customer service, transcription services like Fireflies for meeting capture, project managers like Asana for tracking AI‑driven workflows, and specialized engines for regulatory and policy analysis; see Planning Magazine's roundup of planning use cases and govStrategy's municipal tool list for concrete options, plus OhioX's analysis of RegExplorer for how state agencies matched AI to legal review and measurable savings.

“If there are going to be cuts made to budgets, we are going to have to be much more sensitive with our time beyond what we already do today.” - John Cruz, AICP

Local case studies show how modest AI pilots translate into everyday savings for Columbus agencies: Delaware, Ohio's use of site‑layout automation to generate

100 different iterations

for a mixed‑use proposal illustrates how rapid scenario testing lets planners narrow options before costly reviews, freeing staff for community engagement and enforcement work; similar Sandy Springs parallels - municipal process automation and targeted copilots - point to the same payoff for Columbus departments that handle permits, zoning, and budgeting.

Practical next steps include small, measurable pilots (permit‑review copilots, transcription for meeting minutes, and targeted automation in finance) paired with staff training so gains are sustained; see the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work registration and syllabus for a practical guide to local AI prompts and use cases for Columbus government (AI Essentials for Work - practical AI skills for any workplace) and the Nucamp Back End, SQL, and DevOps with Python registration and syllabus for a briefing on accounting automation and workforce pathways (Back End, SQL, and DevOps with Python - training for automation and workforce adaptation) for concrete training and adaptation resources.

Columbus agencies should treat AI as a value‑delivery program, not a technology bet - start by selecting 1–3 mission‑critical use cases (permit review, meeting transcription, or targeted finance automation) with clear KPIs, run small pilots in an “innovation sandbox,” and require measurable outcomes and stage‑gate reviews before scaling; pair each pilot with lightweight governance (risk screening or an Algorithmic Impact Assessment), domain‑expert co‑design, and a workforce plan that includes upskilling and continuous learning so staff view AI as productivity‑enhancing (one state CIO reported procurement cycles falling from 18 months to six months when processes were rethought).

Establish vendor partnerships and a Center of Excellence to centralize validated tools, playbooks, and monitoring, publish transparent guardrails for resident data and PII, and iterate on human‑centered evaluation criteria as readiness grows.

For practical templates and stepwise guidance, see the Government Technology Insider adoption checklist and the human‑centered maturity framework for public services; for hands‑on staff training that aligns to municipal use cases, consider the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work course.

“If your personal data is not ready for AI, you are not ready for AI.” - Christopher Bramwell, Utah Chief Privacy Officer

Columbus agencies must pair the efficiency gains of RegExplorer-style automation with clear guardrails: states are filling the federal vacuum - nearly 700 AI bills were introduced in 2024 - so local policy should require AI-use disclosure, human oversight, and algorithmic impact assessments for high‑risk systems (a feature of Colorado's CAIA and other state laws), publish procurement and data‑sharing rules, and mandate pre‑deployment reviews to avoid downstream liability; see the state-by-state AI regulation guide for the legislative landscape and examples.

Technical design obligations - treating agents as “law‑following” by building systems that refuse illegal actions and embed compliance constraints - offer a practical ex‑ante control that reduces reliance on slow court remedies and aligns with proposals to regulate by design.

Implementable steps for Columbus: require vendor documentation of bias mitigation and data provenance, adopt lightweight impact assessments for any public‑facing copilot or decision tool, and centralize oversight in a city AI governance board that publishes summaries for public review (resources and legal frameworks available from Ohio legal scholarship and the Law‑Following AI framework can guide policy drafting).

KPIs turn pilots into accountability: Columbus agencies should pick a tight set of measurable indicators that connect model quality, operational efficiency, adoption, and governance to dollars and hours saved.

Start with model‑quality metrics (precision, recall, F1) and generative‑AI checks for groundedness and safety, layer in system KPIs (uptime, latency, time‑to‑deploy) and operational measures (processing time per permit, automation rate, call/chat containment), then add governance KPIs (explainability coverage, audit‑readiness, human override rate) to prove responsible use; see practical KPI libraries and local dashboards in ClearPoint's State Spotlight: Ohio for real‑world templates and a 143‑measure starter library.

Use governance KPIs from AI oversight guides to track fairness deviation and incident detection, and follow MIT Sloan's guidance that organizations using AI to redesign KPIs are far more likely to capture financial value - so tie every KPI to a clear owner, an automated dashboard, and a quarterly review cadence to translate technical results into budget and service improvements.

For concrete KPI examples and monitoring patterns, consult Verifywise's AI governance lexicon and MIT Sloan's research on smart KPI design.

“Only 30 percent of companies using AI track governance performance through formal indicators” - World Economic Forum, Global AI Adoption Report, 2023

Columbus agencies face a familiar triplet of risks - limited budgets, legacy IT, and a skills gap - compounded by uneven governance: StateScoop found 22% of state and local respondents reported no AI‑use policies, leaving decisions ad hoc and public trust fragile.

Ohio's December 2023 statewide AI policy offers a concrete mitigation path by requiring procurement disclosures, employee training, data protections, and a multi‑agency AI Council to review generative tools, so local departments can inherit tested guardrails rather than build them from scratch (State and Local AI Adoption Analysis - StateScoop, Ohio Statewide AI Policy - Ohio Department of Administrative Services).

Practical steps to lower risk: start with 1–2 sandbox pilots tied to KPIs, mandate vendor documentation of data provenance and bias‑mitigation, invest incrementally in cloud‑ready infrastructure, and fund focused upskilling or vendor partnerships to close talent gaps - approaches UrbanLogiq highlights as high‑leverage ways governments can bridge adoption barriers without large up‑front bets (Roadmap to AI Adoption in Government - UrbanLogiq).

The payoff is concrete: measurable service improvements and fewer legal exposure points when human oversight, procurement controls, and auditability are required from day one.

“State and local generally have concerns over data privacy and the use of AI systems that are potentially biased in the way that they create outcomes in the community… they're feeling, from a regulatory perspective, maybe one or two steps behind those mission-focused areas on the federal side.” - Amy Jones

Columbus agencies should turn the playbook into action: adopt the Ohio statewide AI policy as the governance backbone, run 1–3 focused pilots (permit review, meeting transcription, targeted finance automation) with clear KPIs tied to dollars-and-hours saved, and use statewide forums to share lessons and vendor options - benchmarks already exist (Ohio's RegExplorer work projects $44 million and 58,000 labor hours saved by 2033) so pilots must report processing‑time, automation rate, and audit readiness from day one; convene peers and vendors at events like the Government Innovation Showcase Ohio (May 13, 2025) to source solutions and cross-agency partners, and invest in practical upskilling through the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp so staff can co‑design, govern, and scale tools responsibly - start small, measure rigorously, publish results, and scale what saves time and money.

“Ohio is at the forefront of the innovative use of technology in the public sector and AI has great potential as a tool for productivity, as well as education, customer service, and quality of life.” - Lt. Governor Jon Husted