Legacy Procurement Practices Shape How U.S. Cities Govern AI: Understanding Government Employees' Practices, Challenges, and Needs

Understand

Most AI tools adopted by governments are not developed internally, but instead are acquired from third-party vendors in a process called public procurement.

• In this paper, we conduct the first empirical study of how United States cities' procurement practices shape critical decisions surrounding public sector AI.
• We conduct semi-structured interviews with 19 city employees who oversee AI procurement across 7 U.S.
• cities.