Albany County Joins Multi-County AI Pilot Program for Property Assessment

Albany County commissioners and staff considered joining a three-month pilot program with C3 AI, a Redwood City, California-based artificial intelligence company, as part of a broader meeting agenda that also included a federal emergency preparedness grant and a juvenile justice data-sharing agreement.

Teton, Sublette, Natrona and Albany counties have all expressed a willingness to participate in the three-month pilot program. C3 AI initially contacted the Wyoming Department of Revenue, which recommended the company engage with county assessors to gauge their interest in using AI for property valuation.

Albany County Assessor Chelsie Mathews made clear she sees concrete operational benefits for her office on Grand Avenue. "I am particularly enthusiastic about this pilot program for several reasons," Mathews said. "First, it has the potential to significantly streamline our sales verification process. It would enable us to verify sales for all properties, and not just the outliers." She added that the timeline would allow her to conduct standard 2025 valuation analysis concurrently with C3 AI results to evaluate its effectiveness. Mathews also cited upcoming legislative changes and new property exemptions as a driving reason to explore tools that would optimize her office's operations.

Commissioner Sue Ibarra raised concerns about transparency in the AI reports and potential job loss should the project become a permanent fixture. C3 AI Strategic Solutions Director Aneel Kabir addressed both points directly. "Transparency is actually one of the biggest things that we focus on," Kabir explained. "I'd like to say that actual use of artificial intelligence in this application is minimal. We're not doing anything that the appraisers don't already do. We also deliver an evidence package that shows exactly how we came to that value. We can then deliver to the public as needed for full transparency." Kabir also pushed back on concerns about displacement: "There's a lot of high-value work that doesn't get done in their offices. I spoke with Chelsie, and she had a lot of projects she wanted to work on. A lot of assessors' offices do. We're here to take some of that work off their plates and allow them to do higher value that, in many cases, just isn't getting done. We're here to serve as a tool for them, not to replace them."

C3 AI is based in Redwood City, California, and despite its innovative focus, the company is far from a startup, having been listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than 15 years. Kabir cited a track record of government deployments spanning defense and local government: "We've done a lot of work with the assessors' offices across the entire U.S., deploying in over 30 jurisdictions across 12-plus states." The AI pilot item was scheduled for a vote during the Albany County Commission's regular meeting Dec. 17.

The commission's agenda extended well beyond artificial intelligence. Albany County was awarded a grant totaling $94,675 from the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security under the Emergency Management Performance Grant program, with the federal funding available until Sept. 30, 2025, and designated to enhance the county's preparedness for a variety of hazards. Albany County Grants Manager Bailey Quick explained the grant's purpose: "This grant is just funding that helps pay for the operations for the Emergency Management Office." Commissioners also approved a collaborative data transfer and user agreement with the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center, central to the Wyoming Juvenile Justice Data Collection Project, which aims to share information regarding juveniles with prior involvement in the criminal justice system. Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Curran described her office's role: "Our office provides all of our juvenile citation and juvenile justice information to this data collection program, which is the reroute program. Then, it assembles all of that data for analysis at the university level, allowing them to identify trends. Our juvenile boards use it, as well, potentially for grant opportunities." The commissioners approved the data sharing unanimously.