The GovAI Podcast

In this episode of the GovAI Podcast, Noam Maital and Dustin Haisler are joined by Micah Gaudet, Deputy Chief Manager and Chief Public Safety Officer for the City of Maricopa, Arizona and a leading voice on practical AI adoption inside government.
Micah brings a hands-on perspective from inside city operations, where AI is no longer experimental, it’s embedded into day-to-day work. From using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to inform decisions in real time, he shares what it actually looks like to integrate AI into leadership, workflows, and service delivery.
They explore how agencies should approach experimentation, how to evaluate new tools, and why banning AI often leads to more risk through shadow usage. The conversation also dives into governance, trust, and what it takes to scale AI responsibly across an organization.
They also look ahead to what’s next, from agentic systems to citizen-driven AI, and how expectations for government are already shifting as residents begin interacting with public services through AI.
This podcast is brought to you by Darwin AI, a platform built for state and local government to help agencies adopt and manage AI responsibly.

In this episode of the GovAI Podcast, Noam Maital is joined by Dr. Amit Elazari, Co-Founder and CEO of Open Policy and a leading voice at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and global policy.
Amit brings a unique perspective from both inside government affairs and as a founder building tools to scale policy access. From her experience shaping cybersecurity policy at Intel to launching Open Policy, she breaks down why policy has historically been limited to a small group of experts and why that’s now changing.
They explore how policy directly impacts go-to-market, product strategy, and revenue, why most companies underestimate its role, and how AI is enabling a broader set of organizations to engage in shaping policy rather than just reacting to it.
The conversation also dives into the evolving global landscape, from EU regulation to U.S. state-level fragmentation, and what it means for companies and governments trying to navigate a rapidly shifting environment.
They also look ahead to the future of “policy as code,” where governance becomes more scalable, automated, and embedded directly into how organizations operate.

This podcast is brought to you by Darwin AI, a platform built for state and local government to help agencies adopt and manage AI responsibly.

In this episode of the GovAI Podcast, Noam Maital and Dustin Haisler are joined by Benjamin Palacio, Senior IT Analyst for Placer County, California and a longtime practitioner on the frontlines of government AI.
Ben has been building AI solutions since 2018, well before the current wave of generative AI, and brings a rare, hands-on perspective on how AI has evolved inside government over the past several years.
They explore what’s actually changing (and what isn’t), from early rule-based chatbots to today’s real-time, dynamic AI systems and what that means for agencies trying to move from experimentation to real deployment.
The conversation dives into how AI is being applied today, including chatbots, automation, and citizen-facing tools, as well as the operational realities of adoption: procurement challenges, data governance, validation, and the risks of vendor lock-in.
They also tackle one of the biggest questions in government today: Will AI replace workers or fundamentally change how work gets done?
This podcast is brought to you by Darwin AI, a platform built for state and local government to help agencies adopt and manage AI responsibly.

Season 2 of the GovAI Podcast is here.
AI is evolving faster than government policy, procurement, and regulation can keep up and that gap is creating both massive opportunity and real risk.
In this kickoff episode, Noam Maital and Dustin Haisler break down what’s happening right now across the AI landscape: from federal and state regulation battles to the race between frontier models like OpenAI, Gemini, and Copilot. They also explore what agencies actually need to be doing today to prepare for the next wave of AI adoption.
From shadow AI inside agencies to agentic systems and citizen-facing AI, this conversation looks ahead to where government AI is heading in 2026 and beyond.
This podcast is brought to you by Darwin AI, a platform built for state and local government to help agencies adopt and manage AI responsibly.

In this episode of the GovAI podcast, Denise Reilly-Hughes, Vermont's Chief Information Officer, discusses her transition from the private sector to government, emphasizing the importance of a human-centric approach to technology. She highlights the need for a code of ethics in AI, the value of embracing failure in innovation, and the challenges of managing public records in the age of AI. The conversation also touches on successful use cases of AI in government, particularly in response to flooding, and the importance of building effective partnerships with vendors.

This podcast is brought to you by Darwin AI, a platform built for state and local government to help agencies adopt and manage AI responsibly.