Salinas outlines cautious rollout of Zen City, CitiBot and Copilot pilots to expand digital access
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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 with a goal of reporting performance metrics in July.
"Our focus remains true to our core values encompassing responsible and efficient government," Ortega said, summarizing the objectives of creating an informed public, building purposeful tools and pursuing regional partnerships.
Council members and residents repeatedly asked how the technology would reach people with limited digital access, non‑English languages, accessibility needs and low digital literacy. Ortega said the city is coordinating education partnerships — citing work with the Salinas Public Library and the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership — and will pursue training, public computer centers and multilingual support.
Several speakers raised concerns about accuracy and the risk of AI “hallucinations.” Council member Aurelio asked what safeguards will prevent incorrect permit guidance; Ortega said the city’s AI governance policy requires human review, vendor assurances and fallback contact information when the system is uncertain. He added the CitiBot deployment will be contained to the city website and data governance efforts will emphasize site accuracy and containment.
Residents also urged broader language coverage beyond English and Spanish. Ortega said CitiBot’s audio functionality can support dozens of languages and staff plan incremental rollouts to ensure services remain accessible without replacing human interpretation where nuance matters.
Ortega said the city is seeking to limit initial pilots to a small number of departments (community development is likely first), and will return to council in July with pilot findings, performance metrics and recommendations for broader rollout.
The presentation was informational only; there was no council vote on procurement. Staff will return with more detailed procurement and performance data before larger deployments.
