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Organizing Public Sector
People & Knowledge
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GOVAI: AI ASSISTANT FOR 🇺🇸 LOCAL GOVERNMENT STAFF

Civia's mission is to organize and connect local government's knowledge and
people — to unlock its collective wisdom, boost its noble spirit, and forge a
better future for our communities. As a start, we've created a uniquely powerful
AI assistant tuned exclusively for local government leaders and staff.


Why is GovAI great for gov?
🔐 Compliant
🏛️ Contextual
👋 Community


SEEING IS BELIEVING:

Click for sound



3:23
●●●●
Knowledge Inquiry
Creative / Generative
Task Automation
What-If / Brainstorming








Knowledge Inquiry

LEARN  
Ask technical questions in your functional area, research adjacent topics,
explore policy questions, and ask gov career questions too.
Creative/Generative

MAKE  
Produce emails, outlines, proposals, interview questions, and more - all
informed by your specific regional, organizational, and role contexts.
Task Automation

STREAMLINE  
Proof-read and edit text, summarize articles, translate language, create
alternative versions, etc. Quickly understand and easily add polish.
What-If/Brainstorm

EXPLORE  
Predict the outcome of actions, generate fresh ideas, get analysis, ask a
devil's-advocate, and interactively explore any topic.

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WHAT IS AN 'AI ASSISTANT' AND WHAT CAN I USE IT FOR?

An AI assistant, or Artificial Intelligence assistant, is like a virtual helper
designed to make life easier by providing information through conversation and
automating tasks. Imagine having a smart friend you can talk to on your computer
or phone, who can answer your questions, help you find information online, and
help streamline or automate many work-related tasks.

AI assistants are usually interacted with via a chat window which is why they
are also sometimes called 'AI chat bots'. The user simply types in a question or
request, and the AI assistant responds with an answer or action. GovAI also has
an 'email interface', which allows you to simply send an email to
GovAI@Civia.com and it will reply back to you.

Typically AI assistants like GovAI are used for:
 1. knowledge inquiry (learning something specific)
 2. creative/generative tasks (writing, creating, or producing something)
 3. task automation (editing, summarizing, translating, etc.)
 4. what-if/brainstorming (exploring ideas, predicting outcomes, etc)


In a local government context, the most common use of AI assistants is to learn
or explore specific topics -- often outside of the user's day-to-day functional
area -- although GovAI is used across all the above categories.

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IS GOVERNMENT ADOPTION OF AI ALREADY UNDERWAY?

Yes. While there are various forms of AI-in-government gaining ground (AI
assistants being just one example), the data indicates a significant surge of
usage happening across public sector organizations, especially among front-line
staff and managers. GovAI's usage at municipalities, for example, is doubling
every 90 days - an astronomical growth rate for 'govtech' software.

Based on this data, we believe that 'the horse has left the barn' on this
powerful new technology and it's time for local government to have a better
option like GovAI vs the commercial / industry-first solutions being used in the
wild. Both ideological extremes -- blind optimism and outright denial -- obscure
the reality of this technology's powerful impact already.

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WHY WAS GOVAI CREATED?

GovAI was created so that local government would have a better option for AI
assistants than the industry-first solutions largely on offer. Public Sector is
so unique in its context and constraints that off-the-shelf AI systems range
from inappropriate to downright dangerous.

We founded Civia to help local government staff unlock their collective wisdom,
boost their noble spirit, and forge a better future for their communities - and
we discovered that AI assistants can be a powerful tool in helping individual
staff members and leaders do just that.

We built GovAI in constant dialogue with local government staff, and we continue
to evolve it based on your feedback and needs. We believe that AI can be a force
for good in local government, and we're committed to making that a reality.

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WHO IS THE TEAM BEHIND GOVAI (AND CIVIA)?

We're the founding team of Civia, a group of technologists and builders who are
passionate about the potential of AI to help local government staff. We've
worked in and with local government for decades, and we've seen first-hand how
the right technology can help public sector staff rise to their challenges.

Previously, we founded Bonfire, a successful 'govtech' procurement platform that
handled terabytes of highly confidential buyer/supplier data, $100B+ of
procurement projects, and was used by thousands of government users. Through the
10+ years of building that platform and company we saw first-hand how
knowledgeable, hard-working and virtuous local government staff are.

But we also saw how silo'd and fragmented best-practices and specialized
knowledge was across public sector. We'd see that one group had a problem
'solved' while another group on the other side of the country was just beginning
to tackle the same issue.

We were inspired to create a platform that would allow local government staff to
connect, share, and learn from each other. The advent of AI added powerful
possibilities to how knowledge is categorized and shared. We're excited to be on
this journey with you, and we're committed to making GovAI and Civia the best
possible platform for local government staff.

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IS GOVAI FREE? IF SO, HOW CAN THAT BE?

Yes, GovAI and Civia are free for individuals in local government. We believe
that in order for local government to continue evolving, transformative
technology and tools should be available for leaders and staff without expensive
subscriptions or lengthy procurement cycles.

We will soon offer Enterprise plans to local government agencies that wish to
deploy GovAI across their organizations, and want central user management,
visibility/reporting, and fine-grained policy and data controls for their users.
Contact us at Sales@Civia.com to discuss Enterprise licensing.

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WHY IS GOVAI LIMITED TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT STAFF?

In order for GovAI and Civia to be the best possible tools for local government
staff, we need to focus on the unique context and constraints of public sector
work. By limiting access to local government staff, we can ensure that GovAI and
the Civia community is optimized for the specific needs of local government
users, and crucially keep it private and safe from outsiders.

We've all seen how LinkedIn and other platforms have been overrun by salespeople
and recruiters, and we're preventing that with GovAI and Civia by simply banning
non-local government folks from the platform entirely.

This is why we require users to register with their local government work email
- that way, we verify that users currently work at a qualifying organization.

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EXPLAIN 'COMPLIANT / CONTEXTUAL / COMMUNITY'

While "AI" is obviously at the core of GovAI, we believe that an AI itself is
not enough to make a positive transformative difference in local government.
We've found that the context in which the AI operates, the community of peers it
connects you with, and the protections you have while using it are all equally
important to the nuts and bolts of the Large Language Model (LLM) itself.

So we've built features around the core LLM that allows GovAI to be far better
at helping you. Specifically:

🔐 Compliant: We believe that the protections that you as a user -- as well as
your organization -- have while using AI is crucial. GovAI features Data Shield
which prevent PII and other sensitive data from entering the AI/LLM, and Civia
has Zero Data Retention agreements with underlying AI/LLM processors which means
that your data is safe and won't be retained for training or any other purpose.
GovAI also doesn't require any access to a user's local system, files, or data,
and certifies. These additional features provide for a safer, more secure, and
more effective AI experience for local government staff.

🏛️ Contextual: GovAI uses your unique context in local government -- your
organization type/size/sector, geographic region, functional role and seniority
-- to optimize the underlying LLM. This means that GovAI's responses are more
accurate, relevant, and actionable for you. Consider how the response to a user
might differ depending on if they're a city manager in California, a public
health nurse in New York, or a public works director at the Texas DOT. GovAI
ingests your context and then uses that to guide the LLM in responding. Try it
out and see the difference!

👋 Community: Civia has a Directory that connects you with peers in your field,
and a chat window that connects you with GovAI. This means that you can easily
find and message other local government staff, and get help from GovAI, all in
one place. This is a powerful way to connect with others in your field as you
explore topics and questions. We believe this combination of AI and real,
experienced people is the best way to help you learn and progress.



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WHO CAN I CONTACT FOR MORE DETAILS?

Reach out to us at Hello@Civia.com with any questions, concerns, or feedback and
we'll respond quickly. You can also register for a Civia account and message us
from inside the platform.

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HOW CAN I SAFELY TRY GOVAI OUT?

The quickest way to try GovAI is to simply send a local government question to
GovAI@Civia.com from your local government work email. GovAI will respond to you
with a helpful answer or action.

To get the full experience, just register here for a free account and you'll be
able to use GovAI in a chat window, and access the Directory to connect with
peers in your field.

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HOW GOVAI WORKS

GovAI takes your unique context in local government -- your organization
type/size/sector, geographic region, functional role and seniority -- and uses
that to optimize an underlying Large Language Model (LLM) trained on public
data. No private data sources are required beyond your question/prompt itself.


SECURITY & PRIVACY

GovAI is safe and secure for local government staff to use. Specifically:
 1. GovAI Data Shield can identify and sanitize PII in user prompts prior to
    ingestion into the AI/LLM - making it safe for users
 2. User data is NOT retained for training or utilized beyond responding to the
    questions and operating the platform, and Civia has Zero Data Retention
    agreements with underlying AI/LLM providers;
 3. Our strict policies and procedures are documented in our Trust Center;
 4. GovAI doesn't require any access to a user's local system, files, or data;
    
 5. IT teams can 'claim' their organization and work with us to implement custom
    policies for their users - contact us.


COMMUNITY: CONNECT VIA THE DIRECTORY

As exciting and powerful as AI is, sometimes you'd like to connect and
collaborate with another human peer in your field.

To make that easier, we used GovAI to gather, clean, and organize contact
information from public online sources in one consistent place - so you can find
and message peers easily and safely.

Find your peers via
Directory & Map
Update the details for
Your Profile
Reach out with
Private Messages
Stay in touch using
Group Chats


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REGISTER FOR FREE TO GET ACCESS TO GOVAI AND THE DIRECTORY

Have a question or need help? Contact us at Hello@Civia.com

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UPCOMING WEBINARS:

We offer regular non-promotional webinars on our research and data on GovAI
usage trends and learnings for government and public sector audiences. See below
for upcoming webinars.

🗓️ June 5/12/19 @ 2pm ET -- [GovTech] Adapting GPT-4o for Safe Government Use
As the hype around AI Assistants and GPT-4o grows, how can government and public
sector users protect themselves and their teams from the associated risks?

🗓️ June 13, 2024 @ 2pm ET -- [Case Study] PII sharing with AI Assistants - and
how to prevent it
Learn about a new approach to preventing PII and sensitive data ingestion for AI
and LLM systems, featuring data from 300+ municipalities and their users' actual
use of AI Assistants.

🗓️ June 20, 2024 @ 3pm ET -- [Research] Has the GovAI Horse Already Left the
Barn?
Join us to see detailed data and statistic about how our GovAI Assistant is
being used across 425 local governments, state/provincial agencies, and other
public sector organizations in the US and Canada.

If you'd like a custom webinar for your organization or association, contact us
at Hello@Civia.com.

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OUR ASSOCIATIONS & PARTNERS:


If your association members would benefit from learning about AI and real-world
examples, contact us at Partners@Civia.com to schedule a non-promotional webinar
on GovAI trends for your next meeting.


TRY IT NOW: EMAIL GOVAI@CIVIA.COM AND IT WILL RESPOND!

Send from your government work email (GovAI is exclusively for gov staff). Your
email address will not be shared / sold.
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210-137 Glasgow St, Kitchener ON N2G 4X8

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