Around 35 to 40 county employees will start learning how to use Microsoft 365 GCC (Government Community Cloud), which provides AI to government customers with additional security, DeLuca said. The cost for the year is estimated at less than $30,000, DeLuca said.
“That’s the beauty of it too, we can shut it off at anytime,” DeLuca said of the agreement with Microsoft.
The county is “taking baby steps” by developing an AI policy and training a small group of employees, DeLuca said. The county employs roughly 1,400 employees.
The group that will start learning to use Microsoft 365 GCC includes employees from various departments and employees who use computers, DeLuca said.
“We have volunteers from just about every department to participate in the in the pilot program … to basically empower them to be involved in this, to get trained in it, to understand what it does and doesn’t do,” DeLuca explained to 10 attendees at the county operations building.
The presentation was also streamed for remote participants on Zoom.
“The point is: it’s here. And we want to make sure that our workforce is educated and understands it and doesn’t use it without understanding it,” DeLuca said. “My role here is to make sure that our employees are using the technology responsibly and in a way that best serves the community.”
DeLuca said he understands the anxiety “that we’re all going to be taken over by artificial intelligence.”
“I’m telling you as a practitioner, as somebody who studies this, we are not at that point,” he said. “The county has absolutely no plans to get anywhere near that point.”
AI will not be “taking jobs” in the “near future,” and the county will use AI “as a helper, not as a decider,” he said.
“There should always be a human in the loop, and that’s one of the things when we’re implementing any type of AI technology here, that will absolutely be critical,” DeLuca explained.
AI benefits include saving time conducting research and writing reports, he said.
© 2025 The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
