Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Salinas outlines cautious rollout of Zen City, CitiBot and Copilot pilots to expand digital access
Summary
City information‑systems manager Carlos Ortega presented a staged AI rollout — Zen City for social listening, CitiBot chatbot for website service, and Microsoft Copilot for staff — with pilots planned through summer and a July evaluation; council and residents pressed for equity, translation and guardrails.
Salinas city staff on Tuesday laid out a phased plan to use artificial intelligence to improve city services while promising training, oversight and community safeguards.
Information systems manager Carlos Ortega described three initial solutions the city plans to deploy: Zen City, a social‑listening and community‑survey platform; CitiBot, a website chatbot that offers multilingual audio responses; and Microsoft Copilot to assist staff with drafting and research. Ortega said the city aims to have Zen City live by February, build Copilot and CitiBot between February and April, and run pilot tests in May and June…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
