For Cranston Municipal Government
LexiconGov is a RAG-powered AI research assistant that searches Cranston's approved municipal code, GIS data, ordinances, and city documents so staff get accurate, cited answers instantly.
Municipal code lives in PDFs. Ordinances are on old websites. GIS data is in a separate system. Staff spend half their day hunting for information that should be one search away.
A regular AI chatbot makes things up. That's fine for a marketing site. It is not fine when an answer about zoning variance affects a resident's property rights.
When a long-time employee leaves, they take decades of knowledge about where things are and how things work. A documented system survives.
Municipal code, GIS layers, ordinances, charters, meeting minutes, and approved city resources are indexed into a searchable knowledge base.
Staff ask questions like "what's the setback requirement for a residential accessory structure in Zone A?" The system retrieves the relevant passages.
Every answer cites the exact source document, section, and date. Staff can verify it, share it, and trust it.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation means the AI never guesses. Every answer is pulled directly from Cranston's official documents and presented with a citation. No hallucinations. No speculation.
Every response includes the exact ordinance section, page number, and document name. Accountability built in.
Query parcel data, zoning map layers, and spatial information alongside text documents in a single search.
Staff don't need to know how to search a database. They ask a question. They get an answer. The interface is for everyone.
When ordinances are updated, the knowledge base is updated. Answers always reflect the current, active code.
Search across code, GIS, meeting minutes, and approved websites simultaneously — not one silo at a time.
Every query and answer is logged. Staff can review what was asked, what was retrieved, and what was answered.
The goal is not one city. The goal is a proof-of-concept that becomes the playbook for all 39 municipalities in Rhode Island. If it works for Cranston's planning department, it works for Warwick's, Providence's, and every town in between. Good government should not require a big IT department.