The Zohran Mamdani-led administration has launched a major audit to address a $12 billion budget hole, calling the previous management’s financial legacy a “poisoned chalice.” Among the first cuts identified was the AI-based chatbot launched by Eric Adams in the fall of 2023, a tool created with the ambition of guiding businesses through complex city regulations but quickly revealed itself to be a bureaucratic and legal stumbling block.
The decision to discontinue the software follows numerous reports relating to the unreliability of the responses provided to users. On several occasions, the system had suggested to the owners of commercial activities behavior contrary to current regulations, even hypothesizing the possibility of withholding part of the tips intended for employees. These critical issues, widely documented, convinced the transition team of the need to interrupt a project which, given a construction cost of close to 600,000 dollars, did not guarantee minimum standards of effectiveness or legal certainty.
Developed on Microsoft’s cloud platform as part of the MyCity initiative, the chatbot was the cornerstone of a digitalization strategy that aimed to streamline access to government services through the massive use of external consultants. However, Mamdani described the service as functionally unusable, citing it as an emblematic example of public resource management lacking transparency into the real costs of the programs. The debt relief plan will not be limited to the removal of the digital tool, but will include an increase in tax pressure on large estates and corporations, together with a detailed analysis of every single expenditure item “under the hood” of the city budget.