San José Trained 1,000 City Employees to Build AI Tools — By Asking Them What They Actually Need

Most AI adoption strategies start at the top. San José’s didn’t.

The city’s AI Upskilling Program, launched in 2024 in partnership with San José State University, has now trained more than 1,000 city employees — roughly 15% of the municipal workforce — to build their own AI tools. The goal: reach 2,500 employees, or 30% of staff, by June 2027.

What makes the program notable isn’t the scale. It’s the design.

A Bottom-Up Model

Stephen Caines, San José’s chief innovation officer, said the city deliberately avoided a mandate-and-train approach. Instead, participation is voluntary, and the program starts by asking employees on the front line of city work where they see service gaps and opportunities for improvement.

“Bottom up is really about asking the people on the front line of the work, where do they see value, where do they see service gaps, and where are those opportunities for improvement,” Caines told StateScoop.

The result: demand has consistently exceeded available seats. “It’s typically oversubscribed,” Caines said. “We’ve even seen people come back to take the course again multiple times.”

How the Program Works

Participants choose between self-paced courses and a more intensive 10-week cohort-based track where they design AI tools tailored to their specific roles. Governance is embedded directly into the program — employees build on approved enterprise AI platforms using city-managed accounts, eliminating the need for case-by-case security reviews.

San José is part of a broader wave of U.S. cities investing in AI workforce readiness. Washington, D.C., became the first major U.S. city to mandate AI training for all employees and contractors in February; San Francisco has made AI literacy courses available through a government portal.

Key Takeaways

• San José’s voluntary, bottom-up AI training model has produced higher engagement than top-down mandates — demand consistently outstrips capacity.
• 1,000 employees have completed the program, building role-specific AI tools that the city reports are already reducing administrative burdens.
• Governance is embedded by design: participants use pre-approved platforms, removing friction without sacrificing oversight.

Read the full article on StateScoop.