Dublin City Council moves towards deploying AI tools to “increase staff productivity”

Dublin City Council is looking for vendors that might help it deploy AI tools to “increase staff productivity and reduce manual administrative processes”.

This could include a chatbot to help staff find what they are looking for amid the council’s “vast array of documents and data”, according to pre-tender documents. 

Or a tool that could ensure consistency in answers staff give to councillors in response to their questions, so answers don’t contradict each other.

Or an application to help staff members understand what they could be doing better, and how they could improve or upskill to advance their career. 

Or a tool to help staff work through the public procurement process, including market research, vendor research, and analysis of tender specification documents.

Or potentially, agentic AI solutions to automate repetitive tasks, and assisting with improving the accessibility of Dublin City Council systems and documents. 

The documents also mention “customer services centre solutions”.

Right now, the council is seeking to identify potential partners with expertise in generative AI that it can work with, according to a pre-tender notice issued Monday.

This is a request for information that’s designed to help inform the council’s longer term plans, says Nicola Graham, the council’s Smart City Programme Manager.

The request caught a number of councillors by surprise when they were contacted on Tuesday. “This was the first I heard of it,” says Social Democrats Councillor Cian Farrell.

But there are potential benefits that this could have across particular services provided by the council, Farrell says. “Every year councillors get hundreds of emails about picking up leaves in their area.”

AI could be used to map trees in the city and their species, he says. “Overlay historical weather events, and have like predictive models of where and when leaves fall, and send out cleaning crews there.”

A complementary AI service to that which the council currently offers would be welcome, says Fianna Fáil Councillor Rory Hogan. “I think AI would be incredibly useful for improving the efficiency in the services provided by the city.”

It would be helpful too in assisting staff to deal with queries, he said. “However, it must not replace current customer services absolutely.”

Being proactive

In February, the council announced that it was launching a generative AI lab focused on local government services and it was collaborating with Trinity Business School and the ADAPT Research Ireland Centre.

The council is taking a cautious but proactive approach to exploring how generative AI technologies – artificial intelligence which creates content like text, images or code by learning patterns from datasets – could support its staff in their day-to-day roles in the future, Graham says.

As part of this, staff were issued guidelines for its usage in March, which warn against the use of free, publicly available generative AI tools for council-related tasks, in the interest of meeting data security and privacy standards.

According to the guidelines, the council has a licence to use Copilot, a generative AI chatbot tool developed by Microsoft.

The council also established a Generative AI Governance Group consisting of representatives from departments and sections across the organisation, a council spokesperson said in April.

That group will be reviewing and approving the staff guidelines, they said.

Early exploration

The notice issued by the council on Monday is a preliminary market consultation (PMC), or a pre-tender process which it is doing to communicate with relevant AI experts prior to the publication of any tender.

Any future digital solution that is procured by the public sector may have AI features, says Graham. “We recognise that we need to be prepared and our staff upskilled to understand how these solutions work, ensuring the responsible and ethical deployment of AI and Gen AI technologies.”

The council’s PMC is built upon its work through the GenAI Lab and its proof-of-concept projects, the notice says.

These included “trialling the use of general AI models to improve staff productivity across communications, knowledge management, and drafting functions”, the pre-tender documents say.

Those proof-of-concept projects aren’t available to view right now, Graham says. “They are in the very early stage of exploration through the Gen AI Lab and are contained within DCC's secure internal environment.”

Alongside the use of chatbots, the notice also says that the council’s key focus areas include working with large volumes of unstructured data, the querying of organisation documents, and supporting the upskilling of staff to use these applications.

To date the council and ADAPT have co-developed a generative AI awareness-building module for staff, which has been delivered to over 300 employees, Graham says. “We intend to extend this training to approximately 3,000 staff members in 2026.”

The council is also exploring different options to continue the training and upskilling of staff, she says.

Growing appreciation for the human touch

As the council takes these steps, and considers using programmes like chatbots in its customer services, it should also make sure to retain human customer services, says Fianna Fáil Councillor Hogan. 

“There is a growing appreciation for the human touch in consumer-facing jobs, and this must be recognised,” he said.

If this was going to have any material impact on workers, or jobs, the council’s management will be held to account, says Richy Carrothers, the head of the Local Government  and Local Services Division in Fórsa, the trade union. 

“But if management wants to engage with us regarding improved technology, we will listen to what they have to say,” Carrothers says.

Councillors have asked that the council does not extend its use to marketing materials or posters, says Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll. 

“We believe paying local artists is more important than maybe the efficiencies that AI would use in the generation of artwork,” she says.

Back in April, Fingal County Council advertised a new summer market in Swords using AI-generated imagery, which was provided to it by “an approved supplier” who had been engaged to create its promotional materials.

Using the availability of AI free tools as an opportunity not to pay creative workers shouldn’t be accepted, O’Driscoll says. “We need to not replace creatives. We need them.”