The city was an early adopter of AI safeguards, establishing interim guidance in April 2023 and an official policy by November 2023. Seattle was also early to ban controversial algorithm-based rent-setting technology. The city’s AI work doesn’t stop at policy, though; it also includes use cases like implementing AI for traffic safety.
The City of Seattle 2025-2026 AI Plan, released Thursday, expands on this previous work to chart a path forward.
“Our second AI Policy builds on lessons from almost 40 AI pilots and projects, while we upskill our teams, partner with leading companies and apply our leading responsible use AI work,” said Chief Technology Officer Rob Lloyd in a statement.
The city’s updated policy — which applies to all staff, consultants, vendors, contractors, partners and volunteers — offers guidance for responsible AI use and acquisition in Seattle with an aim to reduce bias and other harms. AI use is allowed, with oversight in place, but some uses are prohibited entirely, such as emotion analysis, social scoring and integration with autonomous weapons systems.
Notably, the new policy also establishes metrics to evaluate AI pilots for a number of factors: performance, accuracy and reliability, adoption and satisfaction, scalability, return on investment, and alignment with business goals.
Lessons learned through the city's existing pilots have shaped this revised policy. Currently, the active pilots are focused on Seattle’s priorities, such as accelerating permitting and housing production, public safety, customer service and making information accessible.
One pilot involves the Permitting Accountability and Customer Trust team working with CivCheck to cut permit processing times, an approach that has been adopted in other cities, including San Jose, Calif. Separately, Seattle Public Utilities plans to apply AI to pipe inspections. And the Department of Transportation uses AI to reduce car crash risk by identifying intersections where safety improvements can be made. The city is also using AI tools to create more accessible written materials, including translations — albeit, keeping humans in the loop.
To further enable AI implementations, Seattle’s upskilling plan will support the introduction of a citywide course, workshops on data science, and partnerships both with universities and private-sector technology companies.
Notably, the Seattle IT Department will be hiring a new AI leadership position dedicated to coordinating the implementation of this plan across city departments.
As part of this announcement, the city also kicked off its new Community Innovation Hackathon Series, in partnership with AI House, Seattle's AI hub launched through public-private partnership in March.
The hackathon series will convene students, entrepreneurs, technologists, city staff and community members to create AI-powered solutions focused on city priorities. The first event took place on Sept. 11 and focused on improving Seattle's Youth Connector web application. The next, which will focus on permitting efficiency, is scheduled for Oct. 9.
