Beyond Efficiency: AI, Design, and the Art of Good Government

The rush to streamline city services often misses a crucial truth: good government isn't always about speed and lower cost. Some government processes need intentional friction – those thoughtful pauses and verification steps that build trust and ensure fairness. As artificial intelligence promises to accelerate everything from permit approvals to benefit determinations, we must resist the temptation to optimize solely for speed or lowering cost. Instead, the future of government design lies in identifying where efficiency serves the public good and where deliberate friction creates value. This means developing new metrics for success that go beyond processing times to measure genuine public impact: trust built, inequities prevented, and long-term outcomes achieved.