AI spotlight: Integrating AI across Montgomery County, Maryland

Leaders at every level of government are using artificial intelligence to help their teams, offices and agencies work more efficiently and effectively.   

The Partnership for Public Service AI Center for Government™ is publishing a series of blog posts to celebrate how AI and intelligent automation are being used in government to serve the public.  

Recently, we sat down with Michael Baskin, chief innovation officer for Montgomery County, Maryland, to learn more about how he encourages AI integration across the workforce. 

Promoting a culture of AI use 

Michael Baskin wants all 9,000 government employees of Montgomery County, Maryland to be innovators. He believes AI offers opportunities to take creative risks. And his team leads by example.

One way his team used AI to promote experimentation was to enhance the county’s existing innovation accelerator course. Baskin’s colleague, James Hawkins, built a custom Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or GPT, to supplement the professional coaching typically included in the program.  

The team programmed the GPT with internal team knowledge, and then structured the tool to ask coaching questions rather than give direct answers. Staff can ask the custom GPT specific questions related to their workflow with an eye toward making process improvements.

“We didn’t frame [the coaching tool] so much as this being about AI. …[We wanted to] get people comfortable seeing the value that this can have for them without [using] it for the things that we often imagine involve personally identifiable information,” Baskin said.   

Exploring AI in the public sector

To support staff innovation with generative AI, Baskin promotes practice and collaboration. Examples include: 

• Bringing innovators together: County staff partner with state communities of practice to share and scale innovation. 

• Building a learning community: The Office of the County Executive created a Gen AI Explorers group to remove silos and to share what works and what doesn’t.  

• Involving leadership: Baskin encourages the chief administrative officer to share how he is using AI, and what he learns from his mistakes. Baskin believes “having that [leader say], ‘Here’s what I’m doing, and here’s how I’m personally experimenting’ can be really, really helpful.”   

Partnering with generative AI

Baskin regularly encourages staff to “think of AI as a practice partner,” especially for high-stakes conversations.  

In one instance, he worked with Montgomery County’s assistant chief administrative officer to conduct emergency scenario planning. Midway through a scenario tabletop exercise, Baskin instructed the AI tool to begin with the prompt, “Governor Wes Moore is now calling you. Are you ready to pick up the phone?” One participant quickly responded, “Woah, I’m not ready,” underscoring the importance of preparing for that first reaction.  

“So much of generative AI is about producing the thing,” Baskin explained. “It can produce the plan or the script for you—that’s great. What we’re going for is to create that powerful emotional response within our teams that urges them to take action and to actually practice and be ready.”  

Continuing the conversation

The Partnership for Public Service AI Center for Government™ champions AI innovators across all levels of government.   

If your agency is taking steps to lead AI well, we’d love to hear from you. Join us as we highlight real-world AI use cases and convene public-sector leaders from across the country to share tools and insights to lead confidently in the age of AI. 

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