Town of Vail to pilot a new AI integration program
Silverthorne company offers town free services in exchange for marketing
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When the town of Vail committed to building a data center in town in 2019, town staff was likely not aware that the move would also make the town an ideal candidate for an AI experiment years later.
Speaking to the Town Council on Tuesday, Vail Information Technology Director TJ Johnson said the town has been approached by the Silverthorne-based AI developer Kamiwaza to pilot a new program that will use artificial intelligence technology across several municipal services.
“It’s a pretty exciting opportunity, and for just a little bit of marketing, hard to turn down,” Johnson said. “Sort of a dream come true.”
Kamiwaza aims to provide towns like Vail with AI technology while still protecting data, claiming it has created “the first distributed AI orchestration platform that processes intelligence where data lives, enabling transformation without compromise.”
Johnson said that could be ideal for towns like Vail.
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“This is not ChatGPT, where you go out and put your data into the cloud and whatever comes back comes back,” Johnson said. “This is proprietary information, so this will be a hosted model here at the town, by the town, for the town.”
It will be energy-intensive, however. Johnson said Vail’s existing data center is a key piece of infrastructure enabling the project.
“It’s only one server, but it does have eight power supplies, so everything you’ve read about AI power consumption is true — it will suck some power,” he said.
Vail built its data center at the West Vail fire station in 2019 as part of the town’s participation in Protect Thor, an effort from the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments to improve broadband service in the region.
“The data center is key to the town’s system operations and protecting its digital information,” town staff noted at the time.
But it also means that now the town is able to handle the requirements needed by Kamiwaza to build an AI orchestration platform for town staff to use, Johnson said.
“Without that, we wouldn’t be as good of a candidate as we are,” he said.
Kamiwaza is collaborating with Hewlett-Packard, SHI International and other industry partners on the effort. The town and Kamiwaza narrowed down 21 possible applications to four initial projects:
- Website accessibility compliance to ensure Vail’s online documents meet state and federal ADA standards.
- A housing tool to aggregate deed-restriction data and streamline the town’s housing lottery process.
- An early wildfire prediction tool, using drones, vegetation monitoring and seasonal dryness data to predict fire risk.
- A virtual assistant kiosk, envisioned for the library or welcome centers, to help visitors navigate town services and activities in real time.
Town Manager Russell Forrest said the housing tool in particular shows the potential of AI to take over time-consuming tasks.
“Housing’s a great example, some of the more mundane things where you’re reviewing documents, and that’s laborious — a computer could do some of that and enable staff to focus on some higher-level thinking,” he said.
Mayor Travis Coggin welcomed the opportunity to test emerging technology in Vail.
“You never know where it will lead,” he said.
As part of the agreement, Vail will lend its branding to Kamiwaza’s marketing efforts, positioning the town as a “lighthouse partner” in the rollout.
“So you’re leading the way and all that kind of stuff,” Johnson said.
Kamiwaza will develop the four initial projects free of cost to the town, using Vail as a proof of concept model to pitch to other potential clients.
“All they’re asking us is if it’s successful, we share that success with others,” Forrest said.
