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

As cities like Orem look to cut costs and speed up services, Utah is building the playbook: a first-in-the-nation Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy is crafting practical rules to encourage safe innovation, while the Division of Technology Services is establishing an AI program to streamline data analysis and decision-making across agencies.

State pilots - most notably the Gemini for Google Workspace rollout - show real wins (79% of users reported saving 1–5 hours per week and 18% saved more than 6 hours), and UVU demos have even demonstrated AI-assisted compliance tools that pre-populate privacy notices with a single click, turning legal complexity into actionable checklists.

Those advances mean Orem departments, contractors, and residents can expect faster document workflows, smarter data-driven planning, and lower overhead - especially if staff invest in practical training like a 15-week AI Essentials curriculum to learn prompts, workplace use cases, and hands-on skills.

"You hold a sacred trust."

Orem is primed for AI adoption because several practical pieces are already in place: a statewide policy environment that clarifies acceptable uses of the technology, accessible training pathways for city staff and contractors, and a broader “AI multiplier effect” driving faster R&D and lower barriers to build new tools, according to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025: AI multiplier effect across the global startup economy (Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 - AI multiplier effect analysis).

Local leaders can capitalize on ready-to-use, beginner-friendly playbooks and prompts that translate into tangible workflows - everything from template-based document automation to simple data-cleaning jobs - by using curated resources like the Top 10 AI Prompts and Use Cases for Orem (Top 10 AI prompts and government use cases for Orem).

With clear guidance from the Utah Artificial Intelligence Policy Act and practical upskilling options, departments can pursue low-risk pilots that replicate the same time savings already seen in state rollouts - turning hype into measurable hours reclaimed for higher-value civic work (Utah Artificial Intelligence Policy Act implementation guide: UAIP implementation guide for Orem government).

For Orem government departments and contractors, practical AI use cases are already proven on the public-sector stage: mission-enabling automation for finance and HR, intelligent document capture that turns stacks of PDFs into searchable, structured data, and procurement tools that flag non‑compliant solicitations or forecast contract ceiling risks - examples cataloged in GSA's AI use case inventory (GSA AI use case inventory).

Everyday wins also include ServiceNow ticket classification and virtual agents to speed IT service and citizen support, security-focused anomaly detection and identity verification to reduce fraud (see Login.gov and Elastic ML examples), and agentic perimeter monitoring that cuts guard costs and deters crime as demonstrated by LiveView Technologies' deployments (LiveView Technologies' mobile security solutions).

Backed by Utah's first‑in‑the‑nation Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, these low‑risk, high‑value pilots give Orem a playbook for scaling productivity, public safety, and better citizen services (Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy).

Concrete, measurable wins from other governments show a clear playbook Orem can adapt: Brazil's AI‑driven waste routing cut collection costs by 45.4%, freeing up fuel and labor budgets that can be redirected to services, and U.S. predictive‑policing pilots delivered a 7.4% crime reduction and roughly $9 million in annual savings in larger cities - real dollars that illustrate the “so what?” for municipal budgets (shorter routes, fewer overtime hours, and faster response times).

Global analysis also finds decentralized, community‑led waste models can lower levelized costs per tonne while creating local jobs, a useful parallel for Orem's neighborhood‑scale pilots that pair AI route optimization with community collection programs.

Together, these case studies suggest low‑risk, high‑value starting points for Utah agencies - targeted waste‑management optimization, virtual agents to shrink call volumes, and focused predictive analytics for public safety - that can be launched as modest pilots and measured against the same KPIs (cost per service, response time, and incident rates) used in these examples; for more detail see the Virtasant case studies on AI in government and the Climate Policy Initiative's analysis of waste‑management finance.

Orem's AI ecosystem just got a practical, local boost: KPM Analytics opened an 8,200 sq ft AI and software development hub in Canyon Park (717 Timpanogos Parkway, Suite 2300) that will house 75 software developers and data scientists focused on machine learning, automation, and vision inspection - work that directly maps to city needs like smarter route-based monitoring, automated quality checks, and foreign‑material detection for food and agricultural processors; the expansion builds on KPM's 2023 acquisition of Smart Vision Works and signals a new source of talent and tech for Utah agencies and contractors seeking pilots and integrations (read the KPM press release on the Orem office and explore KPM's product suite for local applications).

Local leaders looking for starter playbooks and prompts can pair this on‑the‑ground engineering capacity with beginner resources like the Top 10 AI Prompts and Use Cases for Orem to turn prototypes into measurable cost and time savings.

“the new office demonstrates the company's commitment to be at the forefront of AI innovation for quality inspection and food safety. The additional space and amenities will allow us attract world class talent to continue to lead in the application of AI capability to help food processors achieve greater throughput and process control while simultaneously enhancing food safety.”

Start small, stay practical, and use Utah's playbook: pick one high‑value use case and measurable KPIs (response time, cost per service, hours saved) and run a short, secured pilot modeled on the Gemini rollout so stakeholders can see real savings quickly - Utah's Gemini pilot reported 79% of users saved 1–5 hours per week, a powerful “so what?” for busy municipal teams (Utah Gemini pilot results – InnovateUS).

Next, document compliance and risk controls up front: align proposals with state cybersecurity and data‑privacy requirements and the USBE AI standards framework and consider grant funding or partnerships that require these plans (Utah Innovation in AI grant guidance – Business.Utah.gov).

Tap the Division of Technology Services for infrastructure, governance patterns, and training pathways to scale responsibly, and explore Utah's regulatory mitigation or trial‑deployment options to test novel approaches under supervision (Utah AI Office trial deployment guidance – Trūyo).

Finally, measure, publish results, and iterate - short cycles, clear metrics, and transparent governance build public trust and make expansion across Orem practical and affordable.

“According to nationwide surveys, more than half of state government workers are using Generative AI as part of their work, many of them just using the freely available tools. So could we bring them into a more secure environment and give them those benefits?”

Orem's drive to adopt AI comes with clear ethical and trust challenges that Utah is already tackling: a yearlong Utah Aspen Institute AI governance partnership aims to strengthen fairness, transparency, and accountability in state systems (Utah Aspen Institute AI governance partnership), while the Utah Artificial Intelligence Policy Act and its learning laboratory create a space for supervised pilots and regulatory mitigation so agencies can test innovations without sacrificing oversight (Utah Artificial Intelligence Policy Act and learning laboratory).

Those safeguards are important because real-world studies show how quickly biased outcomes can appear - one experiment found chatbots recommending denials for otherwise-identical Black mortgage applicants - so Orem must insist on human review, bias audits, clear GenAI disclosures, and strong data-privacy controls before scaling tools into housing, lending, public safety, or licensing decisions (study on chatbot bias in mortgage decisions).

Practical steps for local leaders include requiring prominent disclosures for high‑risk interactions, logging and impact assessments for automated decision tools, and using Utah's voluntary mitigation and learning-lab processes to publish outcomes - concrete governance paired with visible results is the fastest way to preserve public trust while collecting the “hours saved” AI promises.

“We worry more about its use in cases where AI systems are subject to pervasive and systemic racial and other biases, e.g., predictive policing, facial recognition, and criminal risk/recidivism assessment.”

Scaling Orem pilots into city- and state-wide projects means following Utah's proven, phased playbook: begin with a tightly scoped, high-value use case in Orem, run a short, secured pilot, and then expand by layering enterprise security reviews, updated responsible‑AI training, and opt‑in agency rollouts - exactly the approach the state used for Gemini.

Utah's structured rollout (started June 2024 with 257 pilot licenses) showed clear levers for scale - continuous DTS support, communication and training plans, and explicit governance via the Office of AI Policy and its learning laboratory and mitigation agreements - so local leaders can test novel services under supervision while protecting residents.

Measure outcomes against simple KPIs (hours saved, response times, incident rates), publish results, and iterate: the Gemini pilot found 79% of users saved 1–5 hours per week, a practical “so what?” that makes the cost/benefit obvious when scaled, and the state later provided access to 15,000–16,000 employees as part of a broader secure deployment.

For playbooks and regulatory scaffolding, see Utah's Gemini pilot summary and the state's guidance on AI policy and the learning laboratory.

“According to nationwide surveys, more than half of state government workers are using Generative AI as part of their work, many of them just using the freely available tools. So could we bring them into a more secure environment and give them those benefits?”

For Orem beginners ready to turn curiosity into action, start with the state's backbone for tech projects: the Division of Technology Services (DTS) offers infrastructure, security, and an IT service desk to help spin up secure pilots - visit the DTS Get Help portal (DTS Get Help portal and IT service information) or call the DTS IT Service Desk at 800-678-3440 to ask about enterprise hosting, security, or vendor on‑ramping; for citizen-facing pilots, review the MyUtah portal plans for single-login, MFA-secured services to streamline resident interactions.

For hands-on skills, consider a practical upskilling path like Nucamp's 15-week AI Essentials for Work to learn prompts, workplace use cases, and measurable pilot design - see the AI Essentials for Work syllabus and course details or register for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work - so Orem teams can move from idea to a secure, measurable pilot with state support and proven training resources.

Resources: DTS IT Service Desk - Call 800-678-3440; Get help: DTS Get Help portal and IT service information. DTS Office - 4315 South 2700 West, Taylorsville, UT. MyUtah portal - single login, MFA, unified citizen services (see DTS initiatives at the DTS site).

AI Essentials for Work - 15 weeks · Early bird $3,582 · AI Essentials for Work syllabus and course details · register for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work.