ChatGPT has changed. Has your council’s thinking changed with it?

When most councils first encountered ChatGPT, it was treated as a writing tool.

You could give it a rather dull road closure notice and ask it to create a social media post. You could use it to tidy a committee report, draft a press release or help you find a polite response to a particularly challenging email.

That alone was useful.

But ChatGPT is changing rapidly.

It can now work across documents, analyse spreadsheets, research information, create reports, produce images and carry out scheduled tasks.

It is moving from being a helpful writing assistant to something closer to a digital colleague.

For councils, that is genuinely exciting.

Creating time for the work that matters

Councils are not short of ideas. They are short of time.

Community engagement, strategic thinking and proactive communication often get pushed aside by overflowing inboxes and urgent administrative tasks.

This is where AI can make a real difference.

Imagine being able to search previous council minutes without opening dozens of PDFs.

You could analyse hundreds of survey responses and identify the strongest themes.

You could check your website for outdated information, create a first draft of a strategy document or turn a complicated statutory notice into something residents can understand.

None of this removes the need for the officer.

It gives the officer a much better starting point.

Instead of spending hours assembling information, you can spend that time considering it, improving it and deciding what should happen next.

From producing information to using it

The most exciting change is not that ChatGPT can produce more words.

Most councils already have plenty of words.

The opportunity is to use information more effectively.

A council could create a secure, searchable collection of its policies, reports or meeting minutes. Staff could find information more quickly and give residents clearer answers.

Scheduled tasks could help councils keep up with relevant news, emerging issues or mentions of the council. ChatGPT can also support repeatable work, such as preparing regular briefings or generating ideas for public information.

Used thoughtfully, it can help a council become more responsive, more informed and more proactive.

A correction about data protection

During my recent webinar, I said that councils needed a paid ChatGPT account to stop their conversations being used for model training.

That was not quite right.

People using personal ChatGPT accounts, including free accounts, can go into Data Controls and turn off “Improve the model for everyone”. New conversations will then not be used to train ChatGPT.

ChatGPT Business and Enterprise workspaces offer different protections. OpenAI says business data is not used to train its models by default.

However, switching off training is only one part of using AI responsibly.

Councils still need to consider data protection, confidentiality and the type of information staff upload. The ICO advises organisations using AI to think about lawfulness, transparency, security, accuracy and data minimisation.

That does not mean councils should be frightened of using AI.

It means creating some clear, shared practices around it.

Remove personal information when it is not needed. Decide which accounts staff should use. Check important facts. Be clear about what can and cannot be uploaded.

You can find more information in OpenAI’s Data Controls FAQ, its guidance on business data privacy and the ICO’s guidance on AI and data protection.

Explore it before you dismiss it

AI will not always get everything right. Neither do humans, which is why councils already have checking and approval processes.

A good prompt, reliable source material and a knowledgeable person reviewing the result can produce extraordinary work.

The councils that gain the most from ChatGPT will not necessarily be those with the biggest budgets or the most advanced technology.

They will be the councils willing to explore what is possible, learn as the technology develops and use the time it saves wisely.

Because the real opportunity is not simply to help councils produce more.

It is to give people more time to think, listen, communicate and serve their communities.