Nallapati came to Denver as CIO in 2023 after previously serving as the state CIO for Colorado, and her focus since taking the helm has been a human-centered approach to IT. That perspective has improved the government experience for Denver residents, and continues to guide her work scaling AI across government in her expanded role as CAIO, which started Sept. 29.
The reason for her role’s expansion, she said, is multifaceted. The speed at which AI technologies are advancing requires action-oriented activities to support inclusive AI development, with sufficient safeguards in place to protect vulnerable populations and cybersecurity. It also supports enhanced collaboration with Denver agency partners to make services for residents more efficient and effective: “This role reflects all of that.”
The position’s expansion into AI gives Nallapati a seat at the table with other agencies as the consolidated city-county charts its path forward for IT, she explained, enabling a partnership that supports technology advancement from conception to implementation. This role expansion, she said, supports that teamwork.
Denver has already been using AI in various ways to support government service delivery operations. One example is Sunny, an AI-powered chatbot that acts as a 311 tool to enable responses 24/7 in 72 languages. The tool has supported both ticket routing and response times, engaging with more than 102,000 residents between Jan. 1 and Sept. 8 alone. Denver also has a chatbot for internal use, Nallapati said.
Officials issued a request for proposals in April with the aim of creating a prequalified AI vendor pool for the government to partner with responsibly. These vendors — evaluated based on technical capabilities, compliance with security standards, scalability, innovation potential and cost — can then use AI to deliver secure and scalable technology solutions to improve resident experience and government operations.
“Once we have the funding available, they are ready to go to meet any problems and challenges that our agencies are facing,” Nallapati said.
City-county government is partnering with enterprise vendors like Microsoft to make use of other tools available, such as the AI tool dubbed Microsoft Copilot. Officials are also evaluating Salesforce’s agentic AI tool for its potential to impact workflows in Denver, she said. Other AI applications are being explored to improve services, including licensing and permitting.
“People are now embracing AI,” she said, highlighting the work of startups and venture capitalists increasingly focusing on leveraging AI for public good and to solve public-sector challenges. She also underlined the information sharing happening across the private and public sector to turn bold visions into tangible actions.
The summit was initially born out of the idea of making Denver a leader in GenAI technologies, with a specific focus on public-sector challenges. In Denver, those include homelessness, affordability, permitting and licensing times, and efficiency.
“Last year was that high-level vision,” Nallapati said of the DenAI Summit. “This year, it was broken down into more actionable insights — more focus on ethical, responsible use, more focus on actual public-sector use cases that can impact residents and citizens in a positive way.”
AI is changing rapidly, from generative AI to agentic AI. Government IT leaders are focused on keeping up.
As AI quickly advances, Nallapati said Denver officials are approaching this challenge by taking it one day at a time and keeping an eye out for changes: both from a regulatory compliance standpoint and in terms of the pace at which the technology is evolving.
Denver officials are learning from other local governments as well as those in the private sector, evaluating use cases for “best fit and best practices,” Nallapati said.
“So, how I would see it is to incorporate [AI] within our workflows in a very responsible, ethical way, making sure that we are not doing AI for the sake of AI,” Nallapati said.
Nallapati said her vision for the future is to meet the evolving demands of residents, using the technology tools available to make services more effective.
“Do we have all the answers? No. But we will figure it out,” she said, emphasizing that AI use will remain human-centered in Denver. “The possibilities are endless.”
