A change in pricing structure for an artificial intelligence platform means Shawano County employees will continue to have access to GovAI.
Instead of paying $9,500 for each six months for all county employees to use the program, the county will now pay a monthly fee per user and save thousands of dollars in the process.
“During the pilot program period, we determined that this type of tool would not be needed for all county employees,” said Matt Hietpas, director of technology services. “As we evaluated options, GovAI informed us that they can also provide pricing on a per-user basis moving forward, which better aligns with our expected usage. The cost would be comparable to competing products, at approximately $30 per user per month. At this time, we anticipate initial use would be limited to approximately 20-30 users across county departments.”
During the first six months of 2026, the county was enrolled in a GovAI pilot program. As that time period wound down, Hietpas and department heads said that while the program was beneficial, it wasn’t necessary for all employees to have access. Total access was the only option offered by GovAI, while others like Microsoft Copilot and ChapGPT offered services at a per-user cost.
AI can benefit the public through interactions such as calls to government offices and chatboxes on the website, while also benefiting employees through the use of data gathering, data management, analytics, resource planning, real time data-driven insights and drafting documents.
Examples include a sheriff’s deputy using AI to review body camera and dash camera footage to create incident reports, or officials analyzing documents for duplicate information or cross-referencing.
“Microsoft Copilot remains one option under consideration, particularly because it is a Microsoft product and offers integrations with email, SharePoint and other Microsoft 365 tools already used by the county,” Hietpas said “On the other hand, with GovAI, it is primarily designed for government use, which may provide advantages for public-sector workflows and use cases. There are many other options out there, but to get started, these are the two that seemed to make most sense for our organization.”
All AI-created documents still need to be reviewed by staff to ensure accuracy.
“The county’s goal is to use these tools where they improve efficiency, support staff productivity and provide value to the taxpayers,” Hietpas said.
Departments that determine the tool would provide value would include the cost in their budgets, subject to approval through the regular county budget process.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
