The Andover City Council unanimously adopted an employee AI policy and approved a subscription to Gov AI on Oct. 28, voting 6-0 on both items.

A member of the city's AI team, identified in the meeting as Neil Coleman, said the policy was developed over six months by the city's AI team and revised following a council workshop the previous evening. Coleman asked the council to accept the policy so it could be incorporated into the employee handbook as section 14.11.

"The team worked very hard over the past 6 months to build a very specific policy that would address concerns and assure safety rails, when city employees use AI," Coleman said. Following discussion, a councilmember moved to adopt the policy; the motion passed 6-0.

Coleman also presented a purchase request to designate Gov AI as the city's primary AI tool. He described Gov AI as a government-tailored solution that, according to the vendor, will automatically redact personally identifiable information if accidentally input and will keep data within a closed ecosystem without contributing that data back to language-model training. Coleman said the city-wide solution would be available to all employees tenant-wide and that the vendor had guaranteed a fixed renewal price for four additional years if the city elects to renew.

Coleman gave a cost breakdown: $2,750 would cover service from November through the end of the current fiscal year, and $16,500 would cover 2026, for a total not to exceed $19,250 for the initial year. He said the 2025 and 2026 costs are covered in their respective budgets and that the 2026 rate has been locked for up to four annual renewals if the city chooses to renew and budgets for it. Coleman noted that under the city's purchasing policy, subscriptions under the staff-approval threshold do not require recurring council approval, and staff will report metrics after a year.

Councilmembers asked about evaluation metrics and what would happen if usage were lower than expected; Coleman said staff would report metrics and could renegotiate terms if necessary.

A motion to approve the subscription purchase for Gov AI located in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, in an amount not to exceed $19,250 passed 6-0.