Kitchener turns to AI-powered startup to bring convenience to its website
Posted Dec 4, 2025 10:04:22 AM.
Last Updated Dec 4, 2025 11:33:48 AM.
The City of Kitchener said it’s looking to help residents answer any questions they have about the city, now partnering with a local startup to integrate the power of artificial intelligence (AI) into its website.
It’s being done through municiPal AI, a local technology startup that was founded in Kitchener by an all-female team. It’s been developed to aid municipalities to better improve service through associated websites, providing relevant information in a clear, easy-to-understand way.
“Anyone, whether you’re a community member, you are a resident, a student, or a developer. If you have a question for the city, you type it in, it scrapes the website, and then answers you in conversational text,” said Kristi Guthrie, municiPal AI’s Co-Founder and CEO.
She said those questions that can be asked of the AI-powered system can stretch to just about anything in connection to city services, whether that be upcoming events, new housing developments, when fireworks can be set off and more.
“My personal example was ‘what’s the largest size of shed I can build before I need a permit?’ But, if you do go to a city site, any city, and you search that, it feels kind of like sorting through a filing cabinet,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie said that, in her years of working alongside municipalities, she’s noticed just how bogged down and difficult some of those websites are to use. She said it’s a problem that stretches across Ontario and the country.
“This problem is prolific,” Guthrie stated. “Every site, no matter how good the tech, no matter how good the comms teams, it’s really hard for a resident to find the information they need on the website because the sites are so big, and the information is so technical.”
It’s not the first time that Kitchener has worked to incorporate AI-powered systems into its ongoing technologies, previously saying that it’s seen success in integrating the tech into local parking bylaw enforcement measures.
According to Ward 7 Councillor Bil Ioannidis, difficulties when working with city websites are not a new issue, with many becoming confused or frustrated when trying to find an answer, and being given potentially irrelevant information tied to their question.
“I regularly hear from my constituents that they want it to be convenient to connect with Kitchener online,” said Ioannidis. “Using AI to make that connection easy, safe, and effective is a great use of technology. Knowing that municiPal is a locally founded, locally owned tech firm makes this partnership a win.”
In connection to Guthrie’s earlier example, if someone is looking to find out how large a new addition or shed would need to be before a city permit is needed, the AI-powered system “will actually tell you the dollars and cents, and it will scrape the website to give you these plain language answers.”
That new AI-powered system is already in effect on the City of Kitchener website, and more on the technology used in the municiPal AI system can be found online.
