Bellevue pilots 'people‑first' AI to triage applications and cut review cycles

Jake Kesselgeser, business services director for the City of Bellevue, and PJ Rodriguez, chief operating officer in Bellevue’s IT department, described a pilot partnership with GovStream AI to reduce friction in permitting by improving the pre‑application and first‑review stages.

Kesselgeser said Bellevue’s pilot — begun in March and moving through staff testing — seeks to provide 24/7 permit guidance, automated document triage, and application‑quality checks so applicants receive immediate feedback before formal submittal. “This is not AI coming for your job. This is AI coming to help you deliver services to the community,” Kesselgeser told the committee.

Rodriguez and Kesselgeser said the pilot focuses first on pre‑application guidance and then on automated triage and first‑review assistance to flag missing materials and reduce the number of subsequent revision cycles. Rodriguez noted Bellevue’s long history of digital permitting and said the city used frontline staff in an agile design process and set an explicit “people‑first” goal: reduce routine staff workload while maintaining staff oversight for complex decisions.

Bellevue said it is testing internal deployments with staff and planned staged rollouts; members of the committee asked about pilot timing and user examples. The city emphasized that AI will be part of a broader permitting technology stack and that early testing aims to surface routine questions so staff can focus on higher‑value work.