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

Fayetteville's government leaders should watch North Carolina's recent 12-week Department of State Treasurer–OpenAI pilot as a practical model: the DST/OpenAI pilot identified potential unclaimed property “total[ing] in the millions of dollars” and - by applying ChatGPT to public records and repeatable tasks - delivered estimated productivity gains and time savings often reported as up to an hour per day, freeing staff to focus on higher-value, human-centered work; details and early findings are available from the DST/OpenAI pilot report and local coverage of the pilot's time-savings and efficiency metrics.

Local agencies that want to adopt similar, privacy-first workflows can pair tool pilots with staff training - programs like Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration teach prompt-writing and practical AI skills for non-technical public servants to accelerate safe deployment.

“Our team set out to find out how we could modernize our department, while still providing top notch service to folks across the state… As this pilot program wraps up, we are thrilled to say our divisions were able to take that publicly available information and utilize ChatGPT in ways that resulted in tangible and measurable improvements to their daily workflow.”

The North Carolina Department of State Treasurer ran a focused 12‑week pilot with OpenAI to test privacy‑first, practical uses of ChatGPT - announced March 27, 2025 - bringing together the DST, OpenAI, and an independent evaluator from NC Central University to pursue concrete goals: identify businesses with unclaimed property, analyze local government financial data, summarize regulations, and automate routine communications to free staff for higher‑value work; the program's initial analysis reported potential unclaimed property “total[ing] in the millions of dollars” and early productivity signals (about a 10% lift and time savings averaging up to an hour per day for many employees), creating a clear playbook for Fayetteville agencies that want evidence‑based, scaled pilots while maintaining strict privacy and verification steps (see the DST pilot announcement, the initial analysis, and local coverage for examples and operational details).

“Our team set out to find out how we could modernize our department, while still providing top notch service to folks across the state… As this pilot program wraps up, we are thrilled to say our divisions were able to take that publicly available information and utilize ChatGPT in ways that resulted in tangible and measurable improvements to their daily workflow.”

The North Carolina Department of State Treasurer's 12‑week pilot with OpenAI produced concrete, repeatable time savings that matter for Fayetteville agencies: independent analysis and local coverage documented 20‑minute tasks completed in roughly 20 seconds, a 90‑minute audit review cut to one‑third the time, and average daily savings of 30–60+ minutes - an early productivity lift of about 10% for participating teams - while ChatGPT helped summarize long reports, draft routine communications, and accelerate data searches for unclaimed property; these gains freed staff to focus on higher‑value, human‑centered work rather than paperwork (see the DST/OpenAI pilot announcement and WRAL's coverage for the report and examples).

“This technology saves a material amount of time.”

Fayetteville agencies can replicate several practical, privacy‑first use cases proven in North Carolina's DST/OpenAI pilot: automate large public‑record searches to find and notify holders of unclaimed property (the pilot identified potential unclaimed assets “total[ing] in the millions of dollars”), accelerate audit and financial‑health reviews by surfacing warning signs in local government data, and cut routine writing and research time by having ChatGPT draft letters, summarize regulations, and turn long reports into action items - tasks that the independent evaluation showed could shrink a 20‑minute job to about 20 seconds and save 30–60+ minutes per user per day.

These workflows pair well with Fayetteville priorities - speeding returns to residents, improving fiscal oversight, and freeing staff for community‑facing work - while following documented safeguards and evaluation steps from the DST pilot (see the DST/OpenAI initial analysis and the independent report) and local implementation checklists for municipalities.

“Our team set out to find out how we could modernize our department, while still providing top notch service to folks across the state… As this pilot program wraps up, we are thrilled to say our divisions were able to take that publicly available information and utilize ChatGPT in ways that resulted in tangible and measurable improvements to their daily workflow.”

North Carolina's NCDIT frames AI governance around seven clear, operational principles so Fayetteville agencies can pursue efficiency gains without trading away safety or civil rights: human oversight is required across development and deployment, transparency mandates plain‑language notice to those affected, and strong data‑privacy controls and pre‑deployment security testing are compulsory - with explicit provisions that any AI application

that does not perform as intended

must be modified, replaced, or deactivated.

The state's living North Carolina Principles for Responsible Use of AI (NCDIT) and companion North Carolina AI Framework for Responsible Use (NCDIT) also require bias mitigation through diverse stakeholder consultation, documented auditing and training for staff, and default privacy‑first design; for Fayetteville leaders, the memorable takeaway is operational: pilots must include human review, plain‑language notice, measurable audits, and an off‑ramp before scale.

Fayetteville can plug into an existing, practitioner‑focused playbook by coordinating with the GovAI Coalition - whose members include several North Carolina jurisdictions such as the Town of Apex, City of Greensboro, Guilford County, City of Hickory, City of Raleigh, and City of Durham - so local leaders don't start from scratch; the Coalition's GovAI Coalition policy templates and knowledge-sharing tools (aligned to the NIST AI Risk Management Framework) provide ready‑to‑adapt items like an AI Policy Manual, Incident Response Plan, and Algorithmic Impact Assessment, while the Coalition's partners host a centralized GovAI Coalition AI Contract Hub - central repository of public AI contracts to save valuable time and resources on procurement; North Carolina‑focused guidance and a summary of member commitments and local use cases are also collected by ncIMPACT at UNC, making it easy for Fayetteville to pilot responsibly with templates vetted by peer governments rather than reinventing governance and procurement from day one.

save valuable time and resources

Economic and workforce planning must be part of any Fayetteville AI strategy: North Carolina's economy leans on a handful of sectors - healthcare, technology, and finance - that ripple into retail, hospitality, and public services, so automation that displaces middle‑skill roles can quickly reduce local consumer spending and harm small businesses if workers aren't retrained.

The Fayetteville lesson from the state op‑ed is clear and actionable: attract startups and diversify into advanced manufacturing, green energy, healthcare, and tech; fund partnerships between employers, universities, and community colleges for AI and data literacy; and stand up a bipartisan workforce task force that ties incentives to training commitments.

For local leaders, one specific step that pays off fast is targeted reskilling: combine municipal pilot programs with focused training pipelines so displaced workers move into higher‑value roles rather than leave the region.

For practical guidance on where to target training and which local jobs are most vulnerable, see the Fayetteville Observer analysis of local job vulnerability and a Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus on at-risk roles and adaptation strategies for Fayetteville government work.

By fostering innovation, we can position North Carolina as a leader in the AI-driven economy rather than a victim of it.

North Carolina sits inside a fast‑moving policy landscape that matters for Fayetteville's pilots, procurement, and workforce planning: in the 2025 session “all 50 states” introduced AI bills and, per the NCSL summary, 38 states adopted or enacted roughly 100 measures this year, signaling that state rules (transparency, provenance, ADS inventories, and worker protections) will shape what municipal governments can buy and deploy - while health‑specific activity is especially intense (Manatt reports 46 states introduced more than 250 health‑AI bills through mid‑2025, with 17 states passing 27 laws).

At the federal level the U.S. still relies largely on existing statutes and agency authorities rather than a single, comprehensive AI law, so city leaders must track both state action and evolving federal guidance to avoid compliance gaps and procurement surprises.

Fayetteville can use curated trackers and summaries - such as the NCSL “Artificial Intelligence 2025 Legislation” overview, the IAPP state governance tracker, and White & Case's U.S. regulatory briefing - to prioritize pilot safeguards, procurement language, and training that align with near‑term state mandates rather than a yet‑to‑arrive federal standard; the memorable takeaway: a shifting patchwork of dozens of state measures can change municipal obligations within a single legislative session.

Fayetteville leaders can move from curiosity to scale by following a short, disciplined checklist used in North Carolina's DST/OpenAI pilot: launch a time‑boxed pilot (8–12 weeks) that uses only publicly available data and clear KPIs tied to staff time - targets can be concrete (the DST pilot measured a ~10% productivity lift and average savings of 30–60+ minutes per user, with some 20‑minute tasks completed in ~20 seconds) - and require human review and privacy controls from day one by aligning the pilot to the NCDIT AI Framework for Responsible Use (North Carolina) (NCDIT AI Framework for Responsible Use).

Build evaluation milestones to capture measurable returns (time saved, error reductions, resident outcomes), document verification steps, and use vendor agreements and de‑risking procedures proven in the DST announcement to define scope and an off‑ramp before scale (North Carolina Department of the State Treasurer and OpenAI pilot announcement: DST/OpenAI pilot announcement).

Use local coverage and independent analysis to set realistic expectations and reporting templates - see WRAL's coverage of the pilot's time‑savings and productivity metrics for implementation details and example metrics (WRAL coverage of NC treasurer AI pilot time-savings); the result: pilots that protect privacy and deliver verifiable staff time back to Fayetteville services.

“Innovation, particularly around data and technology, will allow our department to deliver better results for North Carolina.”

Fayetteville can realize the DST pilot's measurable savings - average daily time savings of 30–60+ minutes - and identified unclaimed assets by pairing pilots with clear governance, human review, and targeted reskilling: use the practical next steps checklist for Fayetteville organizations to scope time‑boxed pilots, align KPIs, and define an off‑ramp; consult local workforce analysis like local data on at‑risk government jobs to target retraining; and build staff capacity with practical courses such as the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus so non‑technical public servants learn prompt writing, verification workflows, and privacy‑first practices - one concrete payoff: reclaiming an hour a day per employee translates into faster resident services and measurable fiscal oversight without sacrificing safety or civil‑rights safeguards.

total[ing] in the millions of dollars