Customer ServiceVerified

The City of Boston deployed a beta AI search feature on Boston.gov, powered by Google Gemini, that gives residents direct answers to questions about city services rather than a list of links. As of December 2025, the feature is live on the 60 most visited pages of Boston.gov.

Details

The AI search tool takes a resident's plain-language question as input and returns a synthesized summary drawn from multiple Boston.gov pages. The city's Digital Service Team reported that as of December 2025, positive feedback for AI search (34.3%) outperformed traditional search (10.9%) by 23.4 percentage points. The feature is described as still in beta, and the city notes it may occasionally produce unexpected results.

Products affected

Boston.gov

Sources & Evidence

Company Disclosure

Boston.gov AI Search

City of Boston·Mar 2026

https://www.boston.gov/bostongov-ai-search

Company Disclosure

Ensuring the Responsible Public Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence | Boston.gov

City of Boston·Dec 2025

https://www.boston.gov/news/ensuring-responsible-public-use-generative-artificial-intelligence

Other practices by City of Boston

Customer SvcThe City of Boston integrated an AI-native platform called Creatio into its 311 non-emergency services system, replacing a legacy system that had operated since 2008. The new platform uses predictive machine learning to recommend next steps in service workflows and generative AI to support natural language interactions between staff and the system.ProductivityThe City of Boston used Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro large language model to automatically generate descriptive titles for more than 1,100 City Council roll call vote records spanning the past 16 years, making historical voting data easier for residents to browse. The city described this as its first public use of generative AI on Boston.gov, launched in May 2024.ProductivityThe City of Boston offers city employees access to generative AI tools for work tasks — such as drafting documents, summarizing text, and data analysis — governed by a formal Gen AI Policy that requires employees to complete basic training before accessing city-provided AI tools. Boston was one of the first major U.S. cities to release generative AI guidelines, initially in May 2023.

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