GXA: Smarter, safer AI for government (now live)

But while use of this nascent technology has been growing in the private sector, viable public sector solutions have lagged behind — until now.

Granicus is excited to announce the release of Government Experience Agent (GXA) — a purpose-built AI solution designed exclusively for government.

Whether renewing a license, reporting a pothole, or accessing public records, people want fast, intuitive, and reliable information and access to services on their time and terms. Proper government technology is no longer just about website design and email marketing. Government technologies that are built for today save time, eliminate strife and, most importantly, serve communities when they need it most. Smart and safe AI is now a must — but only if it’s done responsibly, with partners who understand the unique challenges of the public sector.

GXA offers an effortless way for residents to interact with government, delivering a better experience for everyone and a more efficient, trusted government.

The promise of AI: Effortless access to government

Imagine a world where long lines, stacks of paperwork, and frustrated citizens are a thing of the past. GXA puts that world within reach, with levels of accuracy far beyond existing digital agents. Through GXA, residents gain immediate access to the highly accurate information they need at any time they want and from any place on a government organization’s website, thus avoiding time-consuming searches through website menus and multiple web pages, call center inquiries, abandoned transactions, and walk-in traffic.

Moving forward, GXA will be deeply connected to Government Experience Cloud (GXC), with integrations to your primary citizen services applications like web, forms, and permitting and public records, helping provide always-on, exceptionally relevant self-service experiences.

When people can get things done easily and independently, they’re more likely to engage, participate, and contribute to thriving, vibrant communities. And when they can’t we know they often reach out for help, three or more times – costing governments even more.

Not all AI is created equal: LLMs alone are not enough

AI is everywhere right now, but not all AI is ready for government. Commercial AI tools, like many large language models (LLMs), are trained on and cite vast amounts of open internet data. That makes them powerful, but also risky. They can produce inaccurate, irrelevant, or even biased responses — and when it comes to sensitive government interactions, that’s a dealbreaker.

According to Gartner, organizations that choose AI based on flashy features rather than specific use cases often see disappointing results, but AI agents designed around real user intent have reduced call volumes by 33% and increased agent visits by more than 98%.

Unlike these commercial tools, GXA accesses only the data and content you want it to cite, and the models that govern its responses are tuned to understand government transactions and resident intents — delivering jurisdictionally accurate, contextual responses for a better customer experience. Where commercial AI gives generic answers, GXA provides hyper-local, community-specific responses. That means fewer errors, more trust, and better outcomes.

Why the right data matters

AI is only as good as the data behind it. GXA combines Granicus insights from more than 30 billion digital interactions across more than 7,000 public sector customers with your agency’s own data — meaning outputs are both informed by the industry and tailored to your community’s needs. However, built-in guardrails ensure conversations are never used to train GXA’s underlying model, ensuring responsible data stewardship and maintaining public trust.

GXA is designed to meet the strictest government regulations and use cases:

• Responsible data use: Conversations are private and used only to serve the user.
• Flexible record retention: Every interaction is a public record, and GXA helps you manage them in compliance with local laws.
• Always improving: GXA is LLM-agnostic, meaning it can evolve with the best available models without upgrades. Service information is continuously optimized for clarity and effectiveness, transforming traditional navigation into seamless, intuitive experiences.
• Actionable insights: AI insights help agencies better understand resident needs — enabling smarter, data-driven decisions that maximize impact.

Adaptable for every agency: Far exceeding legacy chatbots

For safety and peace of mind, GXA leaves you in control of the sources your AI agent uses — ensuring accuracy, compliance, and consistency with your government’s voice. Agencies can configure everything from appearance and behavior to data sources, ensuring alignment with branding, policy, and mission.

GXA personalizes its responses based on the flow of the conversational interaction, delivering faster, more relevant answers in the tone and language of the user, while eliminating contradictory or inappropriate responses. Soon, it will help users navigate complex government structures, file permits and license applications, request public records, report service issues, and more.

Why the right partner matters

Agencies are at an inflection point. Generative AI and agentic technologies are no longer speculative; they’re here, and they’re evolving rapidly, beginning to reshape the architecture of public service. This requires not just new tools but also a new mindset for agencies to rethink how they deliver services in a world where expectations are rising and resources are constrained. It also requires reforms in how agencies budget for and procure technology

For many public leaders — city and county administrators, communications professionals, and even CIOs — this moment can feel overwhelming and unpredictable. The pace of change is fast, the stakes can be high, and the expertise required is often outside of the skillsets of current in-house teams. That’s why the partner you choose matters.

AI is not a magic box, nor is it accurate with a plug-and-play approach. Without a foundation of the right data, the right content, and the right alignment across teams, it can amplify misinformation instead of driving efficiency.

We’ve taken time to build not just an effective product but also a powerful process to optimize that solution for your agency. We didn’t rush into this — we perfected it. Our proven approach to human-centered, data-driven experience management aligns data flows, technology, and content to meet the unique needs of your community, while also fostering cross-functional alignment across your stakeholders.

Our GXA onboarding offering includes:

• Activation and training. Our teams offer an efficient, guided process to implement GXA in alignment with your key desired outcomes. These activities include activation input, a readiness assessment, agent configuration, initial outputs review and approval, plus admin console training. We’ll also train your teams on how to create and surface the best content possible to use as source material.

Our GXA optimization offering includes:

• Discovery workshops. Our experts facilitate collaborative workshops with your key stakeholders to understand your business goals and success metrics, identify critical user pain points and expectations, align on scope and timelines, and optimize your data and sources to ensure the best responses.
• Source-of-truth content. We’ll analyze usage data, web traffic, and user interactions to understand top user tasks and needs to build a custom Predefined Response Questions document on which to train GXA with accurate, relevant, in-demand answers for priority questions.
• Key findings and recommendations. After initial onboarding and optimization, our teams will review what your users are asking, whether the agent is meeting their needs, and where drop-offs or dissatisfaction occur. Recommendations for enhancements could include adding or refining pre-written questions, updating website content, or integrating third-party tools or data sources to enhance responses.

Without a solid content foundation in place, agencies risk deploying AI tools that simply scale the chaos, blowing any efficiency gains with more resident questions to answer and trust to rebuild. That’s why we don’t just offer software. We offer partnership. Because in this moment of transformation, how you implement AI is just as important as whether you do. Our experience partners are here with you to ensure your community gets the most out of your AI agent.

A new era of digital government starts now

The question now isn’t whether AI will shape the future of public service — it’s whether your agency is ready to shape that future intentionally, or get swept up in it.

There’s no shortage of AI tools out there. Some are promising. Many are overhyped. And a few are downright reckless. But in a space where trust, transparency, and real-world outcomes matter, the tools you choose — and the partners you choose them with — make all the difference.

That’s where GXA comes in. It’s not just another AI product. It’s a system built with public service in mind, backed by a team that understands the stakes and has already helped connect more than 360 million residents to better digital experiences.

This is your opportunity to move beyond outdated service models and build something more resilient, more responsive, and more human-centered.

Because the future of government isn’t just digital — it’s personal. And it starts now.