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Chautauqua County has already encountered a warning about poorly governed artificial intelligence. The OBSERVER reported that the county Law Department sought another paralegal after AI-assisted Freedom of Information Law requests contributed to a sharp increase in workload. This problem deserves more than another staff position. It calls for a practical system that preserves public access while reducing avoidable work.
Generative AI makes it easy to produce broad, repetitive requests in seconds. A resident can ask a chatbot for every possible document related to a topic, copy the result into an email and unintentionally create days of searching, review and redaction. The requester may receive a slower response, while taxpayers absorb the cost.
The answer should preserve transparency. County agencies can publish clearer records directories, common request templates and examples that show residents how to identify a department, date range and document type. Better guidance would help people ask focused questions and receive useful records faster.
The county should also build a triage process for incoming requests. Staff can identify duplicates, clarify vague scopes and direct requesters toward records already available online. Approved AI tools may help categorize requests and locate likely records, but trained employees must review every result before release. Public records often contain private, privileged or legally protected information. Human accountability remains essential.
This local challenge reflects a broader adoption gap. Gallup found that 65% of employees using AI report productivity gains, while only 12% strongly agree that AI has transformed work across their organization. Individual workers can move faster with a chatbot, yet the organization may gain little when managers have not redesigned the workflow around accuracy, privacy and shared standards.
Chautauqua County employers should learn from that gap. Municipalities, schools, SUNY Fredonia, health systems and manufacturers need written rules for approved tools, confidential data, verification and escalation. They should train frontline managers to decide where AI helps and where it creates risk. They should measure rework, errors, response time and service quality rather than celebrating the number of prompts employees enter.
The county can turn its FOIL problem into a model. Create a small working group of records officers, technology staff, legal counsel and frequent requesters. Test clearer templates and a documented triage process for 90 days. Publish the results, including response times, backlog changes and staff hours. Then revise the system based on evidence.
AI can widen public access and reduce administrative burden when leaders design the process around real outcomes. Without that discipline, faster content generation simply moves costs to someone else. Chautauqua County now has an opportunity to show how local government can protect transparency, taxpayer resources and public trust at the same time.
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, a behavioral scientist and author of The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results (Georgetown University Press, 2026).