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The Smart Community PodcastAuthor: Zoe Eather
"Making Smart Communities that are Accessible, Liveable and Sustainable for All" The Smart Community Podcast is a hub where Smart and exciting people from all around the world come to discuss all things Smart City, Smart Town, Smart Region - anything that makes a place more liveable. Together we can create the Smart Community Collective. Disclaimer: All content is representative of personal opinion only and is not associated with any company, organisation or government agency. Language: en-us Genres: Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Future of AI in Local Government: Strategic Humans and Explicit Processes with Josh Bearup
Episode 391
Sunday, 4 October, 2026
In this episode of The Smart Community Podcast, we continue our Future Of series, this time looking at the future of artificial intelligence in local government. I speak with Josh Bearup, Emerging Technologies Officer at Mornington Peninsula Shire in Victoria.Josh shares his non-traditional pathway into technology, from working in a laundromat to completing a cybersecurity qualification and joining the Victorian Government through a cybersecurity internship. We then explore how AI could change the way local government operates, including Josh's view on how it can shift humans away from simply executing processes and towards defining, improving and taking accountability for them.A big part of our conversation focuses on governance and the importance of making organisational processes more explicit. Josh shares how mapping processes, documenting relationships between people, systems and procedures, and building stronger organisational knowledge can create a better foundation for using AI responsibly.We also discuss why governance can no longer just sit in policies and documents. As AI takes on more work, councils need clear processes, defined decision points and strong human accountability around how the work is actually done. Josh shares practical examples from Mornington Peninsula Shire, and we finish by talking about how councils can start experimenting with AI in ways that are useful, scalable and responsible.As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.Connect:Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.communityConnect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or YouTube.The Smart Community Podcast is produced by PERK Digital.This podcast is recorded on the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi peoples and edited on the lands of the Gaibal peoples. I pay my respects to traditional owners of country and their elders past and present. I also extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening today. Here on the Smart Community Podcast, we talk about data, technology, communities and the future. First Nations peoples have been sharing knowledge, caring for country, and telling stories for tens of thousands of years. I honour that deep connection of storytelling and community connection as we continue our conversation together here today.
