By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
The City of Decatur is taking its first big dive into the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), purchasing software which appears destined to bring major assistance to all city departments.
The board of works and safety, at its meeting Tuesday, agreed to pay Ordinal Software the sum of $10,000 for an AI-powered research assistant.
The Arkansas company, which is only about a year old, is seeking to branch out into Indiana and thus offered Decatur an introductory deal.
The proposal was brought before the board at its previous meeting by Building/Zoning Director Curt Witte. He said the software allows a department to quickly find answers to all sorts of questions.
“You can pull up a property in the city and quickly find out what you want to know about it,” rather than going through pages and pages of documents, Witte said.
It will start in Witte’s department, but eventually be available to all city departments. It would not be available outside city government.
With Ordinal Software representative Jeff Altman on the phone, Witte said the company’s software is now in 10 communities, with six more to be added soon.
Witte and other city reps did some checking on the firm and found nothing amiss. In fact, two communities Witte talked to were happy with their Ordinal addition.
The company charges a $10,000 startup fee and an annual fee of $15,000. But offered Decatur a deal: no startup fee and an annual charge of $10,000.
Decatur also gets a one-year contract, renewable annually at the same price.
Most or all of the $10,000 will likely come of the building/zoning department budget.
Altman said he will make a trip to Decatur in the near future to familiarize department personnel with how to operate the software.
The company says on its website: “Ordinal is an AI-powered research assistant designed specifically for municipal governments. It helps staff find accurate answers from approved city documents, GIS data, and other resources in seconds. Using advanced AI methods like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Ordinal ensures that every answer is grounded in your city’s official information.”
