S2E2 - Benjamin Palacio - The Real Impact of AI on Government Jobs

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.