For government and nonprofit leaders, developing an AI tool can seem both promising and daunting. AI could streamline services for constituents, but examples are scarce, staff may have limited experience with responsible AI practices, and leaders may feel pressure to innovate quickly.

That’s why the Urban Institute AI Studio offers mission-driven organizations hands-on training, technical assistance, and vetted examples from our previous work. We can help you take a responsible approach to AI governance, design, deployment, and evaluation—without sacrificing innovation.

Whether you’re figuring out where to start with AI or have already adopted multiple AI solutions, the AI Studio can work alongside your team as a trusted, independent advisor or hands-on implementation partner.

Here, we highlight two examples of how we’ve helped public-purpose organizations strengthen their capacity for responsible AI implementation.

Applied AI training and technical assistance to strengthen city capacity for community-engaged AI development

Community engagement can enhance the impact of any public-sector effort. And AI solutions are no exception.

Engaging residents during the design stage can help ensure an AI tool addresses real community needs, while partnering with community members to define and evaluate a tool can improve its performance and build public trust.

In 2026, we designed and delivered a training and technical assistance program focused on responsible and community-engaged AI. To create the program, we built on our previous experiences developing trainings on AI ethics and responsible AI use for research and data analysis for nonprofit organizations and foundations. Using our unique expertise in both data science and community-engaged methods, we aimed to help cities use AI to better understand resident needs, improve public services, and strengthen trust in local government.

Over the course of four remote sessions, we trained more than 30 local government staff from 10 cities on measuring the AI readiness of their data infrastructure governance frameworks and community engagement approaches. We outlined how cities could build community engagement capacity, conduct AI ethics and risk assessments, and incorporate residents into AI evaluations and continuous monitoring.

As part of this work, we also provided tailored technical assistance and coaching to city staff working to design and pilot AI solutions.

The AI Studio can work with you to design training and technical assistance programs tailored to your mission and responsible AI needs. Our community engagement experts can also help you identify opportunities to embed community engagement in how you develop AI solutions, helping you improve their effectiveness and build trust.

Ensuring the National Secure Data Service’s chatbot follows best practices for responsible AI use

The National Secure Data Service (NSDS) aims to break down information silos across the federal statistical system by creating a centralized data hub for federal data and providing a front door to that data via an AI chatbot. To ensure the chatbot will follow responsible AI best practices, NSDS asked the Urban Institute’s data science, data governance, and data privacy experts to advise their developer team.

We offered their technical team detailed recommendations, including

• improving the chatbot’s metadata and system prompt, so it could reliably serve data to users with transparent citations;
• improving the AI chatbot’s security to adhere to privacy laws and regulations, including data minimization and purpose limitation practices to protect user information and chat data; and
• establishing performance evaluation metrics and continuous monitoring systems.

As development of the AI chatbot continues, these recommendations can help NSDS ensure users can reliably and safely find the information they need.

When you partner with us, our AI, data governance, and privacy experts can provide a comprehensive review of your AI strategies. We can also make actionable recommendations to ensure AI adoption adheres to relevant laws and responsible AI best practices.