Permitting is getting an AI boost in a city north of Los Angeles, the latest example of how the new technology is helping to power one of the most traditional of local government tasks.

Lancaster, Calif., will become one of the first municipalities in the U.S. to use a “next-generation permitting platform” from Labrynth, which sells automated compliance software, according to a statement.

The platform promises the ability for the city to “fast-track approvals, eliminate bottlenecks and raise the bar on permitting speed, transparency and economic readiness,” according to the statement.

That, in turn, will result in quicker permitting decisions, potentially eliminating a common pain point and source of complaints from developers, residents and others.

The platform uses what the statement calls “agentic workflows,” referencing a type of artificial intelligence designed to make decisions without human prompts, a capability that relies on machine learning, language processing and other tools.

The platform can “pre-screen submissions,” check them against city rules and “flag missing components” to permit applications, among other tasks, according to the statement.

“This tool allows us to take what’s historically been a bureaucratic pain point, permitting, and turn it into a driver of growth,” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris told Government Technology via email. “Especially now, with so much demand for housing, energy and infrastructure projects, we need systems that match the pace of innovation.”

He said the platform already is offering “clearer feedback and faster turnaround” for developers.

Lancaster also will become one of the first cities included in Labrynth’s new Red Tape Index, which the company says is a national benchmark that measures “permitting speed, transparency and regulatory readiness.”

Parris said the city’s inclusion in the tool means Lancaster is “helping define what smart governance looks like nationally. We’re turning compliance from a cost center into a competitive advantage and setting a standard that other cities can follow.”

That index will eventually cover more than 500 cities, Labrynth said, estimating that achieving the mark will take 30 days.

“Lancaster is doing more than modernizing — they’re showing other cities across America what’s possible,” said Stuart Lacey, CEO of Labrynth, in the statement. “Their leadership underscores a broader shift across the country: When local governments remove barriers, they unlock opportunity. Lancaster is the blueprint.”

Using AI to speed up permitting represents one of the hottest areas of the government technology business. Two recent examples underscore that: Pennsylvania’s Permit Fast Track Program, credited with sparking economic development; and the private equity-backed triple merger of GovOS, Avenu and ITI.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series focusing on AI end-user adoption and training

AI has ushered in a new era, changing not only the way we work but the nature of work itself.

Organizations have been using AI to automate routine tasks, generate insights, and augment decision-making to drive productivity and enhance customer relationships. The rise of AI assistants such as Microsoft Copilot, Zoom AI Companion, and Cisco AI Assistant is undeniable – they’ve quickly become part of daily work life. And the benefits are clear. According to the Microsoft Work Trend Index, 70% of early Copilot users said they were more productive, and 68% reported that Copilot improved the quality of their work. 

Despite the rapid growth of AI usage, we must ask – is AI in the workplace meeting its true potential, and are users getting the most out of it? AI offers organizations a massive opportunity to transform operations, empower workers, reduce costs, and revolutionize work – but only if employees embrace and adopt the tools available to them. Despite the hype – and hefty investments – many organizations struggle to realize the full benefits of AI due to the lack of user adoption and training strategies. This is typical of any tech adoption – McKinsey research shows that 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail due to poor adoption and change management. So, for organizations to get the most out of the money they’ve spent on AI initiatives, they have to be prepared to invest in end-user AI training.

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While companies face numerous challenges when implementing AI, the biggest are often people- and process-related rather than technology-related. The 2025 BCG AI at Work 2025 Report found that the uptake of generative AI by frontline workers has stalled, primarily due to a lack of training. Only 36% of employees were satisfied with their AI training, saying they had the skills needed for AI transformation. In contrast, 79% of respondents who received more than five hours of training became regular AI users, compared with just 67% of those who received less than five hours.

AI tools are only as effective as the people who use them. While some AI assistants are intuitive, many workers aren’t sure how to integrate AI into their daily workflows for maximum benefit. Additionally, most employees are not trained as prompt engineers and don’t know how to phrase inputs to get the best results.

Training can fix these challenges.

Related:Twilio Announces RCS Platform General Availability

There are a lot of reasons why an enterprise will want to invest the time and resources in training that will maximize end-user AI adoption. These include:

Related:Creating Great Service Experiences Involves Looking at Human and AI Agent Performance

Despite these benefits, many organizations fail to implement comprehensive adoption and training programs. According to TalentLMS, nearly half of the employees they surveyed said that AI is advancing faster than their company’s training capabilities, while 54% report a lack of clear guidelines on AI tool usage. At some point, investing in clear AI training will be a more cost-effective measure than dealing with security and compliance fallout, or losing ground to competitors with more effective AI use policies.

End-user adoption and training are essential for successful AI deployments. Investing in these programs equips employees with the skills to fully leverage AI technologies. From drafting documents and summarizing meetings to analyzing data and assisting customers, AI can automate routine tasks and improve productivity – but only if users know how to use it effectively.

With a well-planned adoption strategy that includes end-user training and change management, organizations can unlock the full value of their AI investments. The next two parts of this series will provide field-tested guidance on how to develop and deploy end-user adoption and training programs.

San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is testing new artificial intelligence software designed to speed up the city’s building permit process, with the goal of making it easier to build residential housing.

The pilot program, launched Thursday by the city’s Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Department, uses AI from CivCheck to pre-check applications and flag problems before they’re submitted. According to the department’s Housing Production Dashboard, more than 90% of accessory dwelling unit applications are returned to applicants due to missing information, which can delay construction. The city aims to build 62,200 units by 2031.

The pilot is part of San Jose’s larger push to use technology across government, from optimizing bus routes to installing license plate readers.

Tasha Dean, chief communications officer for Mayor Matt Mahan, called the effort a step toward “bringing government into the 21st century.”

“I think that most residents interact with their government in a few ways, right? They wait in line at the DMV, they come to their city council meeting and sit through hours of back and forth with elected officials, or they apply for and they spend weeks going back and forth with planners. These are all things that are incredibly frustrating — they’re slow, and ultimately, they reduce trust in government,” Dean said in an interview, “We’re trying to change that view [and] prove that government can be responsive to the needs of the people.”

The testing phase for building permits will begin this fall, with staff using the tool alongside manual reviews. If the pilot project proves successful, Dean said, the city will release it to the public as early as next year, first for accessory dwelling unit permits, which account for roughly a quarter of new-build permit applications, and eventually for single-family homes.

“I mean, part of the big delays and the issues that makes the housing crisis so bad in California is how long it takes,” she said. “And if we can reduce the friction there, ultimately we hope that we can get more shovels in the ground.”

Dean said the AI system could also help the city move quickly in emergencies, similar to the tool California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last May, designed to expedite the building permit approval process in Los Angeles after the devastating Eaton and Palisades wildfires in January, which destroyed more than 16,000 homes, businesses and other buildings.