What are the easiest things to try in GovAI today?

Start with something you already do every week: an email, a long document, a paragraph that needs to be clearer. Type what you want in plain words and include the document. Most local government staff start exactly there, and the habits you build on small jobs carry over to the bigger ones.

Where most staff start

Across 41 teams in GovAI, four requests sit in the top eight for 39 to 41 of them: rewriting for tone, restructuring a document, proofreading, and drafting emails. That holds from the clerk’s office to fleet. And half of all messages start with someone pasting in their own document.

So the easiest things to try aren’t clever tricks. They’re the ordinary reading and writing on your desk today, with your own document in front of the AI.

Source: GovAI requests from US and Canadian local governments, to August 2026. Shares describe what staff ask for.

Five things to try in your first ten minutes

1. Tidy up an email. Paste in a draft and type: “Make this shorter and friendlier, and keep the deadline clear.”
2. Get the short version of a long report. “Summarize this report in three bullet points for my manager.”
3. Explain a policy plainly. “Explain this policy in plain language, as if to a new staff member.”
4. Compare two versions. “What changed between these two drafts, and what should I double-check?”
5. Draft a reply to a resident. “Draft a polite reply to this email. Explain that the pool opens June 1 and point them to the registration page.”

One job, three tries

A finance clerk needs to explain a late-payment notice to a resident who’s upset about a penalty.

• First try: “Write a reply about the late fee.” The draft is generic and a little stiff.
• Second try: she pastes in the resident’s email and the bylaw section, and adds: “Explain the penalty calmly, say when it applies, and say how to set up a payment plan.” The draft is close.
• Third try: “Make it warmer, and cut it to under 120 words.” Now it’s ready for her to check.

Three short messages, about two minutes. The difference between the first draft and the last came from what she gave it, not from special wording.

If the first answer isn’t quite right

Keep the conversation going. It remembers what you asked a moment ago.

• “Make this shorter.”
• “Use simpler language.”
• “Give me an example.”
• “Explain the second point again.”
• “What did you leave out from the original?”

You don’t have to start from a blank box

GovAI comes with ready-made prompts for common local government jobs, shaped by how more than 20,000 local government staff use it. If you’re not sure what to ask, start from one of those and change the details to fit your work.

What to leave for later

Save anything high-stakes for when you’re comfortable: legal advice, HR decisions, and anything a resident will rely on without a person checking. Small jobs teach you where AI is quick and where your own checking still does the real work.

The one habit to keep

Read it before you send it. AI gives you a strong first draft in seconds. You decide what goes out, and your name is on it.

Try this week

Do one of the five things above every day for a week. On Friday, note which saved you the most time and which needed the most fixing. That list is a good start on your team’s first real job: How do we choose the first job for AI?