Top 5 Jobs in Government That Are Most at Risk from AI in Omaha - And How to Adapt

Omaha's public workforce is on the front line of a national shift as federal and state agencies rapidly adopt AI to streamline services and improve decision‑making; scaling those systems, however, “requires unique strategies, workforce training, and balancing costs against public benefits,” according to the Deloitte roadmap for scaling AI in government.

The National Conference of State Legislatures documents growing state and federal use - chatbots and citizen‑facing automation already operate in dozens of states and many employees report daily or weekly AI use - so routine municipal roles like data‑entry clerks, 311 and utility customer reps, transit ticket agents, communications assistants, and junior analysts are especially exposed.

The good news: targeted reskilling can blunt displacement, which is why practical programs such as the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work 15‑week syllabus focus on workplace AI skills and promptcraft to help local government teams adapt.

“The way the government uses technology is always evolving. They are under great pressure to do more with less since data availability is exponentially growing and not necessarily their budget. Using Artificial Intelligence is one example of how the government can force‑multiply to accomplish their numerous missions.” – Jeff Snider, ATP Gov Vice President of Growth & Strategy

To identify Omaha's top five government roles most exposed to AI, the selection combined practical risk factors - how routine a job's tasks are, how often workers face repeatable citizen interactions, and the volume of structured data they handle - with local signals of adoption and guidance on responsible deployment.

Roles scoring highest for automation risk were those with high-frequency, templated work (billing, ticketing, records), nearby pilots or research showing real AI gains (see UNO's Future of Work symposium and recent UNO projects using AI for budgeting and data analysis), and clear pathways for augmentation or replacement documented by national guidance.

The approach also followed the U.S. Department of Labor's worker-centered best practices - prioritizing transparency, training, and redeployment - while watching local capacity: university research and Heartland innovation projects suggest both demand for automation and a growing talent pipeline for retraining.

A final sanity check weighed social impact: if automating a role would hollow out entry-level on‑ramps or strain public trust, its risk ranking was adjusted downward.

One striking local data point helped calibrate urgency - the UNO panel noted electricity needs tied to AI grew from about 4 megawatts to roughly 100 megawatts, a reminder these shifts scale fast.

“Whether AI in the workplace creates harm for workers and deepens inequality or supports workers and unleashes expansive opportunity depends (in large part) on the decisions we make.” – Julie Su

Municipal records assistants - often the staff who ingest permits, file FOIA requests, and keep the city's paper trail searchable - sit squarely in AI's crosshairs because their work is high-volume, rules‑heavy, and ripe for OCR, RPA, and automated data‑extraction tools that can eliminate rekeying and accelerate document management; vendors and cities already tout big wins from moving documents to the cloud and automating routine routing and indexing.

That shift can free staff for complex casework, but it also risks removing an important entry‑level on‑ramp into public service in places like Omaha and Douglas County unless local leaders pair automation pilots with retraining and clear redeployment plans.

Practical playbooks recommend starting with low‑risk workflows, publishing metrics, and involving workers in design so accuracy and fairness aren't sacrificed for speed - because mistakes in automated records or eligibility checks cascade into real burdens for constituents.

For an overview of where automation proves useful in municipal clerks' offices, see the GovPilot guide to government process automation, and for a broader look at AI's impact and risks in public administration, consult the Roosevelt Institute's recent report.

“Failures in AI systems, such as wrongful benefit denials, aren't just inconveniences but can be life-and-death situations for people who rely upon government programs.”

City of Omaha 311 staff and utility billing agents face real exposure because their day‑to‑day work is dominated by high‑volume, templated citizen interactions that AI and smart contact centers are built to handle; as the webinar below explains, platforms like ConnectIV CX and 311Amazon Connect can triage requests, answer routine FAQs, and speed resolution in ways that materially change staffing needs.

Reimagine Citizen Engagement with AI‑powered 311 Contact Centers

That automation can improve service levels, but it also risks hollowing out entry‑level customer service roles unless municipalities pair pilots with retraining and clear redeployment - local solutions include adopting predictive budgeting and workflow models tailored to Douglas County and tapping nearby talent pipelines such as the UNO BSAI graduates to support implementation and ongoing oversight.

Framing the shift as augmentation rather than replacement matters: when routine billing checks and status inquiries are routed to AI, human agents can be reskilled for complex casework, quality assurance, and community outreach, preserving both service quality and career pathways for Nebraska's public workforce.

Ticket agents and travel clerks - the face of transit who sell fares, help riders navigate transfers, and handle change requests - are squarely exposed as the industry automates ticketing, passenger counts, and yard operations: demonstrations like CapMetro's SAE Level 4 yard pilot show how routes, charging, and vehicle movements can be automated to shave minutes off turnaround time and cut operating labor needs, so tasks once handled at a kiosk or customer window can increasingly be routed to software and smart infrastructure.

At the same time, national guidance stresses a worker‑first approach: pairing any pilot with robust training, apprenticeships, and early frontline engagement so ticket agents can pivot into higher‑value roles - fare‑tech troubleshooting, quality assurance, customer recovery for complex cases, or BEB maintenance support - rather than being displaced; practical playbooks for this transition are laid out in training resources for new transit technologies.

For Nebraska agencies, the “so what” is stark: a single automated yard or contactless rollout can scale quickly, but with coordinated reskilling (and local talent pipelines such as UNO graduates), those same projects can preserve career ladders and keep customer service human where it matters most.

“During the demonstration, the bus encountered pedestrians, vehicles, and large objects, and instantly reacted appropriately to changing situations,” said Severin Skolrud, VP, critical and emerging technology, at WSP USA.

Proofreaders, copy editors, and communications assistants in the Omaha Public Schools communications office are squarely exposed because their daily work - drafting newsletters, shaping social posts, polishing press releases, and preparing crisis messaging - is precisely the kind of high-volume, style‑sensitive writing that AI can draft, summarize, and translate in seconds; that speed can free staff for strategy and stakeholder engagement, but it also raises concrete risks around student privacy and FERPA, transparency, and the loss of a human voice parents expect when discussing their children.

Local and national guidance urges a careful, staged approach: start with low‑risk uses, make AI disclosure standard practice, and audit systems regularly (see practical steps for ethical K–12 AI use), especially since recent reporting finds that nearly 7 in 10 districts lack a formal AI policy and more than 6 in 10 communicators received no training on ethical AI use.

For Omaha, the “so what” is this: without clear policies, audits, and training, efficiency gains could erode trust and remove entry points for early‑career communicators - so districts should pair any rollout with hands‑on upskilling, human oversight, and a mandate that AI support rather than supplant the district's voice; see the NSPRA resources and Education Week coverage for guidance and next steps.

“At NSPRA, we believe that AI can be a powerful support for school communicators, but it cannot replace the strategy, relationships, and human voice that define effective school PR.” - Barbara M. Hunter

Junior analysts and statistical assistants in Douglas County - those who clean datasets, run monthly forecasts, and produce the charts that steer budget conversations - sit squarely in AI's danger zone: one analysis rates budget analysts at an 88% “imminent risk” of automation, reflecting how routine forecasting and formulaic modeling are ripe for code and models to absorb (Will Robots Take My Job - Budget Analysts automation risk (88%)).

Practically speaking, predictive tools can re-run dozens of spending scenarios in minutes, which means a task that once filled a staffer's week can collapse to a single query - great for speed, risky for entry‑level ladders.

Omaha and Douglas County aren't starting from zero: the county's Information Technology Department already supports online data services and systems integration, giving local leaders a technical backbone to pilot automation carefully (Douglas County Information Technology department - systems integration and online data services).

The smart pivot for managers is to pair any modeling rollout with hands‑on reskilling and by tapping local talent pipelines - using local predictive budgeting models and Omaha coding bootcamp talent and UNO graduates - to shift analysts toward model validation, equity‑focused scenario design, and community-facing explanations, so faster forecasts don't mean fewer career starts in public finance.

Nebraska's most practical path forward is a worker‑centered blend of short, skills‑focused courses and clear redeployment plans: local options make that realistic - UNL 10‑week Online Business Analytics certificate teaching SQL, Tableau, and AI‑powered analytics for municipal forecasting (UNL 10-week Online Business Analytics certificate), while a fast 5‑week AI Prompting certificate helps staff learn promptcraft and oversight skills for citizen‑facing tools (UNL 5-week AI Prompting certificate).

The University of Nebraska System also bundles practical foundations - intro stats with Power Query, SQL, and Power BI - that map directly to roles at risk (University of Nebraska System upskilling bundle (intro stats, Power Query, SQL, Power BI)).

Pair training with U.S. Department of Labor best practices - transparency about pilots, early worker involvement, documented audits, and pathways to new jobs - so automation becomes augmentation, not displacement; remember that predictive tools can re‑run dozens of spending scenarios in minutes, but those faster outputs only protect constituents when trained staff validate, explain, and translate results back into policy and services.

Preparing Omaha's public workforce for an AI‑enabled future means turning local capacity into concrete pathways: leverage Scott Data's 110,000‑square‑foot Tier III data center and SEEKER platform to pilot responsible automation, scale practical training through UNO's skills‑based microcredentials and Future of Work programs, and offer short, job‑focused reskilling like the AI Essentials for Work 15‑week bootcamp so incumbent staff move from routine tasks into oversight, model validation, and community‑facing roles; see Scott Data and the Greater Omaha Chamber's plan for shared AI infrastructure and incubation, and UNO's push to embed AI literacy across campus and workforce programs for more prepared graduates (and workers).

This mix - local compute, university microcredentials, employer‑aligned hiring (Find the Why!), and hands‑on bootcamps - addresses the Heartland's readiness gap while preserving entry‑level on‑ramps and public trust by insisting on phased pilots, transparency, and human review at every step.

The payoff is practical: faster, fairer services without closing the door on the next generation of Nebraska public servants - start with pilots, measure outcomes, and scale the training that keeps careers intact and constituents protected.

“This partnership is a bold step forward in making Omaha the premier destination in the Midwest – and the country – for AI innovation and adoption.” - Heath Mello, President & CEO, Greater Omaha Chamber