From left, Rita Gass, chief technology and innovation officer for the City of Rancho Cordova; Shelly Blanchard, executive director of the Cordova Community Council; Laura Fickle, the city's economic development manager; Linda Budge of the Human Machine Collaboration Institute; J.P. Morgan, HMCI chief innovation officer; and Diann Rogers, president and CEO of the Rancho Cordova Area Chamber of Commerce, discuss Rancho Cordova's growing artificial intelligence and robotics ecosystem during the July 17 community luncheon at City Hall. Photo by Ornella Rossi

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - Rancho Cordova is making a multimillion-dollar bet that artificial intelligence can create jobs, strengthen local businesses and prepare residents for the economy of the future.

City officials, technology leaders and business representatives shared updates on that effort during the July 17 Cordova Community Council and Rancho Cordova Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon at City Hall. Speakers detailed progress on the city's AI and robotics initiative that plans to position Rancho Cordova at the forefront of the rapidly evolving AI economy.

The initiative launched after the Rancho Cordova City Council approved a $5 million investment last year to develop workforce training, infrastructure and public-private partnerships centered on artificial intelligence.

"This is an extraordinarily important topic," said Diann Rogers, president and CEO of the Rancho Cordova Area Chamber of Commerce. "We're working very hard to make sure that the gap between our small and medium-sized business community and all the great work that's being done does not widen."

Shelly Blanchard, executive director of the Cordova Community Council, said the investment aims to make Rancho Cordova "the nation's first midsize city to build a community-first AI infrastructure" through partnerships with Nvidia and the Human Machine Collaboration Institute, or HMCI.

Laura Fickle, the city's economic development manager, said the effort is designed to ensure artificial intelligence benefits the broader community rather than a select group of companies.

"AI doesn't happen by itself," Fickle said. "Companies create it. People design it. Infrastructure supports it. And this is the ecosystem that we're working toward to make sure it benefits the community at large."

HMCI Chief Innovation Officer J.P. Morgan said conversations about the initiative began in 2023, shortly after AI tools such as ChatGPT entered the mainstream. Rather than reacting to changes brought by the technology, he said city leaders chose to plan ahead.

"We wanted to be proactive, not reactive, in how we shaped the future of Rancho Cordova," Morgan said.

A key part of that strategy involves connecting education, business and government. Morgan described those sectors as the three pillars needed to support a sustainable AI ecosystem. He noted that local partners, including Folsom Cordova Unified School District, Folsom Lake College, Sacramento State, Nvidia, SMUD and area technology companies, are collaborating on workforce pathways and training opportunities.

The city and its partners have already provided AI-related training to approximately 50 businesses and more than 200 participants, according to Morgan. He said future workshops will continue helping local businesses understand and adopt the technology.

Morgan also highlighted Rancho Cordova's technological roots, pointing to its aerospace legacy and concentration of advanced technology companies.

"For the first time, probably since the space race, Rancho Cordova is being mentioned in rooms where governments and countries are talking about AI," he said.

While much of the presentation focused on economic development, city officials emphasized that artificial intelligence is already being used internally to improve municipal operations.

Rita Gass, Rancho Cordova's chief technology and innovation officer, said the city has spent the past two years developing guidelines, training staff and testing AI tools before expanding their use across departments.

"Better service is our strategy," Gass said. "AI is just a tool that can help us get there."

According to Gass, employees use AI to organize information, draft training materials and summarize documents, allowing staff to spend more time on work requiring human judgment and community interaction.

She stressed that city employees remain responsible for reviewing all AI-generated content and protecting sensitive information.

"AI can help us prepare information, but people still remain accountable for the final judgment and the public service outcome," Gass said.

The city recently received national recognition for its approach to responsible AI implementation, she added.

The next Cordova Community Council and Rancho Cordova Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon is scheduled for Aug. 21 at Rancho Cordova City Hall, 2729 Prospect Park Drive. The luncheon series is held on the third Friday of each month and features speakers addressing issues affecting the community.

For more information and to purchase tickets visit https://www.cordovacouncil.org/rancho-cordova-luncheon.