Working together on the virtual municipal assistant
Gem is not a standalone technology or an individual virtual assistant, but a collective facility for municipalities. Together we develop a virtual assistant and apply AI in municipal services.
Gem is a collective public facility through which municipalities work together on responsible AI in their services. Participating municipalities help develop the technology, the quality of answers, governance, implementation and preconditions such as privacy, security, accessibility and transparency. Gem is fully open source (EUPL licence) and built according to the Common Ground principles.
In cooperation with partners such as VNG, BZK, ICTU and knowledge partners, municipalities build an open, reusable and scalable facility. By working together, municipalities share knowledge, costs, experience and development capacity. This creates a future-proof solution available to the shared municipal practice.
Our four elements for cooperation
- Stronger together: one collective movement of municipalities building better digital services together.
- Answers that are correct: not just AI, but reliable support based on municipal knowledge, experience and quality agreements.
- AI under municipal control: no dependence on a single supplier, but joint steering on values, risks and development.
- Learning and scaling up: every experience, improvement and investment benefits the entire municipal community.
Why work together?
Developing together is better and cheaper. Not each municipality separately, but one joint movement! That is what makes the collective approach attractive. Municipalities contribute practical questions, knowledge and priorities. Together we decide what Gem should be able to do and which developments add value.
Working together on reliable answers. Contact with an AI-powered virtual assistant is only valuable if residents can trust it. Within Gem, municipalities work together on correct, up-to-date and understandable answers, including with generative AI. The focus is not on the technology, but on the quality of the service. All municipalities contribute relevant knowledge.
Joint control over applied AI. Gem is not a supplier's virtual assistant, but a government facility we work on together. Municipalities jointly keep a grip on the choices around LLM and RAG, steer on values and jointly manage the risks and further development with sovereign technology. With partners such as VNG, BZK and ICTU we build responsible AI for the public sector.
Scalable and reusable. What one municipality learns becomes valuable for all municipalities. By working together, municipalities share knowledge, costs, components and implementation experience. This makes innovation faster, safer and more widely applicable.
Want to know more about what Gem can do for your services?
Together we'll discover what your municipality can add to the Gem collaboration.