How should cities use AI? This Atlanta suburb may hold the answer.

Mableton, a Cobb County city founded in 2022, was highlighted in the Mayors AI Playbook, released in January. It’s designed as a reference material for mayors across the country to find national examples of how local governments can use AI — technology Mableton Mayor Michael Owens openly embraces.

“AI is a tool that will allow us to do more with less,” Owens told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s an equalizer in a way for us to be able to provide service levels, to be able to do research and to be able to do all these things that, quite frankly, we would have needed more people to accomplish.”

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Cris Turner, vice president of government affairs and public policy, knowledge and information products at Google, said Mableton is a prime example of a city using AI “beyond brainstorming into implementation.” Mableton uses the tech for various cybersecurity, record management and data storage tasks.

Mableton is among the 15 cities highlighted in the playbook “that demonstrate how AI can improve service delivery and citizen engagement in tangible ways,” Turner said in written comments.

About 38% of local government IT executives say their organizations are not prepared to make productive and safe use of AI tools, according to a 2024 study by the Public Technology Institute. Turner said residents and businesses are already using AI, so governments can’t get left behind. It’s a sentiment Owens shares.

“Chances are AI is already being used in your city,” the Mableton mayor said. “There’s no perfect time to start, but you have to start.”

‘Allergic to file cabinets’

To most people in the Atlanta area, Mableton is known as a bedroom suburb and home to the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park.

Owens aims to redefine that reputation by branding the city as “Digital first, Paper less,” seeking to leverage emerging technologies to increase government efficiency and attract corporate investment.

Credit: Courtesy of Six Flags Over Georgia

Credit: Courtesy of Six Flags Over Georgia

Mableton residents voted to incorporate in 2022, joining a wave of metro Atlanta suburban communities that have opted to self-govern over the past two decades. With 78,000 residents, Mableton is now the most populous city in Georgia’s third-largest county of Cobb, surpassing its neighbors in Marietta and Smyrna.

Mableton was founded just as flagship AI systems began to launch publicly, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Owens, a cybersecurity executive who was elected as the city’s inaugural mayor, said other Georgia cities had to adapt to incorporate those systems, while he could build them into his government’s bedrock.

“I spent about six months just building all our (digital) infrastructure,” Owens said. “As a new city, I had the luxury of being able to do that. … We didn’t have to go through a digital transformation.”

Local governments oversee a staggering amount of records, detailing everything from property deeds and tax data to building permits and code ordinances. Owens wanted all of that information for his new city, albeit in a manner suited for the digital age.

“My biggest fear was that we were going to get hundreds of thousands of documents that the county had in file cabinets forever,” he said. “I’m allergic to file cabinets. I don’t want that.”

All city documents and records were digitized and categorized, which Owens said was made using AI tools possible. All of the city’s data is stored on cloud servers, meaning Mableton doesn’t own or maintain those servers, unlike most other cities.

Searching and synthesizing the massive digital database is also made easier through AI use, he added.

“When cities fall behind, the consequences are practical and immediate,” said Turner, the Google executive. “Staff time is spent on manual, repetitive tasks, budgets are consumed by maintaining legacy systems and security risks increase.”

Creating boundaries

Mableton started with five city employees but has grown to a workforce of roughly 65.

Owens said AI integration helped the city during its scaling process and continues to pay dividends now that its government has grown in size.

“We recognize the fact that people are using AI, so we’re going to give you the tools, but we’re also going to establish the boundaries and framework around that,” Owens said.

Credit: Courtesy photo

Credit: Courtesy photo

The focus on technology is a strategy Owens said could spur economic development or attract business to his suburban area. The city operates a 100% electric vehicle fleet, and he’s spoken about trying to recruit data centers and digital infrastructure in hopes of capturing the spillover effects. (This is despite pushback over data centers in many parts of the region, including a recent moratorium in Cobb County.)

Owens said cities on the cutting edge will have a better chance of accomplishing their economic and redevelopment goals. In Mableton, that means developing underutilized land around Six Flags and Owens’ quest for additional redevelopment powers and tax allocation districts.

“Who wouldn’t want to be part of a digital first, AI-ready city?” he asked.