Indiana DOT saved 360 hours of... Note

Indiana DOT saved 360 hours of manual effort to meet a 30-day executive order with Google AI

Public sector agencies struggle to be agile due to legacy data hindering access to critical information. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) faced this when required to produce a government efficiency report within 30 days. This report needed to map statutory responsibilities to core purposes, but vital information was scattered across various internal documents. A manual review was estimated to take hundreds of hours, making the deadline seemingly impossible.INDOT chose to develop an AI-powered solution using their existing Google Cloud environment and Gemini's capabilities. Their team built an agile, week-long pilot program utilizing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). This process involved ingesting and transforming data using Python scripts and then indexing it with Vertex AI Search to create a searchable knowledge base.The RAG engine in Vertex AI efficiently retrieved relevant document snippets, which were then passed to Gemini for context-aware responses. This ensured that the AI's answers were based solely on INDOT's official documents, not external internet data. The pilot successfully generated draft reports for nine divisions with 98% fidelity, saving an estimated 360 hours of manual effort.This AI-powered approach enabled INDOT to be the largest state agency to submit its efficiency report on time. The AI-generated report framework became the official template for 60 other state agencies, demonstrating responsible AI use and building trust. INDOT's scalable and secure RAG system on Google Cloud created a reusable model for future innovation, accelerating their mission to better serve Indiana.