The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Government Industry in Raleigh in 2025

Raleigh's government scene in 2025 is a live lab for AI: local startups like CivicReach are rewriting how residents get help - multilingual, 24/7 conversational voice AI that plugs into legacy phone systems to cut costs and smooth citizen interactions - while regional analysis shows the Raleigh‑Cary area among the country's “early adopters” of AI, with public agencies already piloting tools that deliver measurable results, such as a 12‑week state treasurer pilot with OpenAI that surfaced millions in potential unclaimed property.

Smart adoption matters here because North Carolina has paired rapid experimentation with guardrails - the state's Responsible Use Framework and OPDP tools emphasize privacy, vendor review, and data governance - so cities can pilot quickly but responsibly.

For Raleigh officials and staff looking to gain practical skills, short, workplace‑focused training like AI Essentials for Work - 15-week AI training for the workplace (syllabus & registration) can teach promptcraft and operational use cases in 15 weeks to move pilots from idea to impact.

“At CivicReach, we believe every resident deserves a seamless, accessible, and respectful interaction when they call their local government. We're building voice AI tools that reflect that belief,” says Chip Kennedy.

For Raleigh government teams getting started with AI basics, it helps to adopt a clear, common vocabulary: think of artificial intelligence as a set of task‑specific tools built from math, computer science, and cognitive science, with “machine learning” referring to algorithms that learn patterns from data and “data science” the practice that turns those patterns into actionable insights - definitions laid out in the GSA AI Guide for Government key terminology (GSA AI Guide for Government: Key Terminology).

Practical machine learning falls into three familiar categories - supervised (trained on labeled examples), unsupervised (finding hidden patterns), and reinforcement learning (trial‑and‑error optimization) - and real municipal pilots often combine techniques to solve specific problems rather than chasing any notion of general, human‑level intelligence.

Keep in mind common myths: AI usually automates tasks, not whole jobs, and outputs reflect the data and rules humans provide, so human oversight and “human‑in‑the‑loop” designs remain essential.

Because states define AI differently, with varying legal implications, consult the NCSL roundup of state AI definitions when framing policies (NCSL state artificial intelligence definitions and examples).

Finally, make communications readable - follow plain‑language standards such as those summarized at Digital.gov's plain language guidance (Digital.gov: Introduction to Plain Language) - so residents understand when automation affects decisions; imagine AI as a careful assistant, not an opaque black box, and design accordingly.

Raleigh's short‑term horizon in 2025 looks less like a distant sci‑fi future and more like a fast‑moving market reshuffle: industry now produces nearly 90% of notable models and U.S. private AI investment has surged into the tens of billions, driving software‑and‑services consolidation and big strategic M&A that can reshape local supplier ecosystems (see Stanford HAI's 2025 AI Index and an H1 2025 market report).

Expect cheaper, more widespread tooling - inference costs fell over 280‑fold between late 2022 and 2024 - so municipal pilots can scale technically faster, but the tradeoff is intense vendor competition and rapid product turnover that require rigorous procurement and data governance.

Deal activity and private capital remain concentrated in the U.S., with PE and VC funneling funds into infrastructure and enterprise stacks while Big Tech pours capital into AI platforms, so Raleigh should plan for partner consolidation even as more city services adopt AI. At the same time, lawmakers are accelerating rules: state legislatures introduced a wave of AI bills in 2025, signaling that procurement, transparency, and risk management will be top priorities for city leaders as pilots move toward production.

“LLMs are competing to deliver the best inference stack to enterprises, which includes reasoning capabilities and strong AI governance.” – Brett Klein, Head of East Coast Technology Banking at Morgan Stanley

Raleigh officials planning AI projects in 2025 should watch federal rules closely: GAO's July 29, 2025 report documents a breathtaking surge in government generative AI - use cases jumped from 32 to 282 between 2023 and 2024 - and warns that rapid adoption brings real tradeoffs in privacy, procurement, workforce, and security (see GAO's report).

At the same time the executive branch revised AI guidance in early 2025 and OMB's M‑25‑21 now requires annual AI inventories, public disclosure, identification of high‑impact systems, mandatory AI impact assessments, and documented risk‑management and waiver reporting before many systems can move to production; Raleigh teams should bake those requirements into procurement timelines.

Practical steps that match the federal mood - start small, pilot safely, document impacts, and limit sensitive data exposure - mirror recommendations already circulating for city governments and a sensible “pilot‑first” approach for municipal projects.

The takeaway for Raleigh: treat federal guidance as the operational floor (not optional reading), plan for longer procurement cycles and FedRAMP constraints, and design pilots with clear human oversight, transparency, and measurable mission outcomes so residents see benefits without surprises.

“AI isn't just a tech upgrade,” said Dave Hinchman, emphasizing that AI changes how agencies interact with citizens and manage missions.

Raleigh's path to safe, effective AI starts with the state's seven Principles for Responsible Use - practical guardrails that make human oversight, transparency, security, privacy, fairness, auditing, and workforce empowerment non‑negotiable for any municipal pilot (see N.C. Department of Information Technology's Principles for Responsible Use of AI).

Local leaders should map every project to those principles up front: run small, measurable pilots that limit sensitive data, vet vendor data handling, and use the Office of Privacy and Data Protection's screening tools so privacy is embedded by design rather than bolted on later (the OPDP questionnaire and Privacy Threshold Analysis help agencies spot risks early).

Partnering with university resources can speed safe adoption - NC State Extension's practical guidance and approved‑tools list clarifies when to use paid, enterprise versions and when data must stay on institutional accounts.

For Raleigh, the “so what” is this: treat governance as operational infrastructure - rigorous procurement, plain‑language notices to residents, routine audits, and staff training turn fleeting pilots into trusted public services rather than opaque experiments, and they keep vendor consolidation and bias from becoming surprise costs to communities.

Raleigh practitioners should prioritize approved, institutionally supported tools and clear data rules: NC State Extension's roundup of “Artificial Intelligence Tools You Can Use Today” lists approved products - Google Gemini Chat (and Gemini for Workspace), Microsoft Copilot (including Copilot for M365), OpenAI ChatGPT Teams and Enterprise/EDU, Grammarly Pro/Education, and Zoom AI Companion - that can be used with green/yellow data when teams purchase paid accounts, while free versions generally require ITPC review because they may use institutional inputs to train public models.

Treat data classification as the operational guardrail - red/purple (sensitive) data needs ITPC approval before being placed in these services - and lean on statewide technical, procurement, and privacy resources from the N.C. Department of Information Technology to align procurement, security, and user support with state policies.

For tools beyond that core list, OIT maintains a wider catalog (39 approved products as of Jan. 2025) and asks practitioners to request help at NC State EIT Helpdesk so pilots stay both useful and compliant; in practice, this means a small pilot using a paid, enterprise account and documented approvals can go from idea to impact without exposing sensitive resident data to public models.

Practical use cases in Raleigh already show how AI can make city services faster, fairer, and more responsive: UNC's ncIMPACT highlights pilots from traffic signal management to property appraisal and gunshot detection that translate data into operational improvements (UNC ncIMPACT report on AI uses in North Carolina); pairing those applications with real‑time data pipelines lets systems act on up‑to‑the‑minute information - think stoplights that adjust to shifting rush‑hour flows or sensors that flag infrastructure risks before they become emergencies (analysis of AI and real-time data pipelines).

Local infrastructure is catching up: new edge and aggregation data centers coming to Raleigh promise the low latency and ecosystem connectivity needed for citywide inference and privacy‑sensitive deployments (Raleigh edge data center announcement).

Concrete municipal pilots that test crisis communication simulations, citizen chat assistants, and targeted automation - run small, measured, and in partnership with regional partners - can boost resident satisfaction while keeping governance and data controls front and center; imagine a live system that reroutes ambulances based on traffic, camera feeds, and hospital capacity in a single coordinated decision, rather than three disconnected updates.

Starting with AI in Raleigh in 2025 is best done by thinking small, practical, and partnered: begin with a short strategic plan that identifies one high‑value, low‑risk pilot (examples from North Carolina include traffic signal tweaks, property appraisal automation, or unclaimed‑property analysis), then run vendor demos and university collaborations to vet feasibility and safeguards - UNC's ncIMPACT recommends exactly this “pilot‑first” approach and offers templates and GovAI Coalition resources to guide local governments (ncIMPACT guidance on AI uses in North Carolina).

Build clear success metrics up front, limit pilots to public or non‑sensitive data, and document contractual and portability requirements so cloud vendors can't unintentionally lock in critical records; real North Carolina pilots show material time savings (some routine tasks fell from minutes to seconds) and a 12‑week treasurer's office trial with OpenAI produced measurable productivity gains while keeping a bright line around private data (WRAL report on the NC treasurer AI pilot and productivity results).

Finally, coordinate with state groups like NCLGISA and the Office of Privacy and Data Protection, plan for workforce training, and treat governance checklists as part of the project plan so a successful pilot can scale without surprising costs or privacy risks.

“What we've learned first and perhaps unsurprisingly, is that this technology saves a material amount of time.” - State Treasurer Brad Briner

Training, workforce change, and a focus on

AI for good

are practical priorities for Raleigh government agencies that want to scale pilots without leaving staff behind: employers can offset training costs through the state's Incumbent Worker Training program (which supports employees who've worked six months or more and helps pay for instructional design and delivery), while state staff can apply for the multi‑day Performance Management Academy cohort that builds operational skills through in‑person sessions in Raleigh this fall (Incumbent Worker Training - NC Commerce program details, Performance Management Academy - NC Office of State Budget and Management cohort information).

Public‑sector partners also gain from sectoral pipelines: the NCDHHS and North Carolina Community College System partnership offering a free Advanced Training Certificate for Direct Support Professionals expands career ladders in care work, and youth pathways like the Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program (up to 200 summer jobs) feed diverse talent into municipal roles - concrete steps that turn AI adoption into local economic opportunity rather than disruption (NCDHHS and Community College System DSP training details).

Coordinate with Capital Area Workforce Development and NCWorks to align grants, on‑the‑job programs, and apprenticeship pipelines so training investments map directly to civic AI capabilities and community benefit.

Raleigh's next steps are practical: align city pilots with North Carolina's Responsible Use Framework and the OPDP's Privacy Threshold Analysis so projects embed Fair Information Practice Principles from day one, tap NCDIT's newly recognized procurement playbook to move secured, compliant IT buys faster, and invest in targeted staff training to turn pilots into durable services - NCDIT's award highlights a 10‑step procurement process, a goal to complete statewide IT procurements within 90 days, and even procurement automation using generative AI and software robots to reduce repetitive work (NCDIT procurement award and IT procurement practices (2025)); combine that operational momentum with privacy‑first checks described in NCDIT's guidance on data privacy and governance so sensitive records never slip into public models (NCDIT guidance on privacy's role in AI governance).

For immediate capacity building, choose short, workplace‑focused training that teaches promptcraft, tool selection, and vendor governance - like the 15‑week AI Essentials for Work course - so staff gain usable AI skills while projects stay compliant and accountable (AI Essentials for Work course details and registration).

Taken together, these steps - pilot first, govern early, procure smart, and train staff - turn promising experiments into trusted services that protect residents and deliver visible improvements, not surprise costs.

“Optimizing North Carolina's IT procurement processes to drive efficiency and help government move at the speed of innovation remains one of our top priorities... This recognition reflects the creativity and commitment of our team to finding better, faster ways to serve our state.” - Teena Piccione, NCDIT Secretary and State Chief Information Officer