What does AI actually look like inside a local authority?

In this episode of Transform Gov, Dublin City Council’s AI Lab team — Khizer Ahmed Biyabani and Richie Shakespeare — explain how they are moving beyond AI hype to deliver practical tools that improve consistency, save time and build trust.

From preventing contradictory council answers to searching decades of records in seconds, they share what works, what doesn’t, and why 80% of AI success comes down to data.

Why Listen

• How AI prevents conflicting public-sector responses
• Turning 1990s PDFs into instant search results
• Training 500+ staff and shifting sentiment from fear to confidence
• Why data readiness matters more than the AI itself

Timeline

00:00 — What the AI Lab is and why it exists

03:30 — Why a sandbox approach matters

11:30 — Training 500+ staff and changing AI sentiment

21:27 — “Ctrl+F on steroids”: AI for council questions

22:04 — Searching records back to the 1990s

24:29 — The truth: data preparation is 80% of the work

27:00 — Building control use cases and operational impact

32:40 — Scaling AI safely in local government

AI in government, digital transformation, local government innovation, generative AI, public sector technology, Ireland eGovernment Awards, smart cities, data governance

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