Santa Maria di Sala, 17 thousand inhabitants in the Venetian area, is not exactly Silicon Valley. Yet it could become the first Italian municipality to experiment with a completely digital department, guided by artificial intelligence. The idea is to Andrea Zurini, IT consultant and candidate councilor in a local civic list, who decided to transform his technological expertise into a concrete political proposal.
His “Listening Department” is not just a catchy name: it is a structured system that promises to revolutionize (in a positive way) the relationship between administration and citizens. No more ignored emails or requests that get lost in bureaucratic mazes. Each report becomes a case to follow, with defined times and responsibilities. How does it work? Let's take a step back.
A municipality wounded by the political crisis
In recent years Santa Maria di Sala has experienced difficult times. The legal cases involving former institutional figures, the changes in majority and the decision-making paralysis (with a lot of commissioner) have left deep scars in the social fabric. Electoral abstention is growing, civic participation is decreasing. It is in this context that Zurini's candidacy was born: not as a traditional response, but as a concrete experiment in democratic innovation.
Zurini's project did not come from nowhere. During months of listening campaigns in neighborhoods and hamlets, the consultant noted a constant: "they only listen to us when we need a vote." From this observation, a structured, technological, replicable response was born. The listening department would work through an AI agent trained on municipal data, capable of answering frequently asked questions 24 hours a day, collecting reports and forwarding them in real time to the competent offices.
How the digital department works
The system imagined by Zurini is based on technologies already available, integrate via API with existing municipal systems. Citizens could interact with the department via the web, social media or QR code. Each request would be automatically transformed into a traceable ticket, with clearly defined response times and responsible parties.
“It’s not about replacing the human,” Zurini explains in his press release, “but about creating a digital channel of mediation between citizens and administration.” Artificial intelligence would not make political decisions, but would ensure that no voice is lost and that every problem receives the attention it deserves. I have a couple of doubts: let’s see if Zurini himself can clear them up for me.
questions: How do you plan to convince older or less tech-savvy citizens to use this system?
Zurini's answer: during the listening campaign, both physical and digital, the most active age group it was precisely the one between 46 and 65 years old, which represents almost half of the participants, but we also received comments and contributions from many citizens over 65, especially via Facebook even during physical meetings in the hamlets.
The real criticality, if anything, is the absence of the youngest: only 8% are between 18 and 29 years old, and even fewer are under 18. This is a warning bell for the future of civic participation.
The point, however, is not to "teach the elderly to use technology", but to rethink the way in which the administration listens to citizens. The tool is secondary. The goal is to create an administration that listens better and communicates in a more targeted, human, effective way. If it succeeds, it will also reach those who are most distant today, regardless of their age or digital familiarity. And finally, looking to the future, the next generation of elderly will be digitalized and we will have to take this into account.
The Santa Maria model by Sala Civic Innovation Lab
The listening department is just the first piece of a larger project. Zurini has developed what he calls “Santa Maria di Sala Civic Innovation Lab”, a model that includes six integrated tools: from the AI Agent to a podcast, “Sala Pubblica”, to explain how the municipality works. From the whitepaper on national best practices to the Innovation Consultation to involve citizens and experts.
As I was telling you in this article some time ago, artificial intelligence is evolving from generative to interactive, becoming increasingly capable of actively collaborating with humans. Zurini's project fits perfectly into this evolution. Which, like all those of its kind, presents its unknowns.
questions: “What are the main risks you see in entrusting part of the administrative functions to artificial intelligence?”
Zurini's answer: The risk is not so much in the technology, but in the use that is made of it. Artificial intelligence must not replace human decisions, but make them more accessible, transparent and understandable.
The real advantage of language models is that they can translate bureaucratese into simple language, reducing the distance that many citizens feel towards institutions today. Or it can act as an intermediary between residents and the administration and send reports to the competent offices.
That said, the reliability of an AI system depends on how you train it: you need a solid foundation made of updated data, public documents, local regulations. For this reason, we prefer to focus on open source models, such as Google's Gemma, which guarantee a higher level of transparency and control compared to closed models.
The rule is simple: AI must help citizens understand better, not decide for them. And behind every decision, there will always be the responsibility of a real person.
A growing phenomenon in the Italian PA
Zurini's idea is perhaps the most integrated, but it is not entirely isolated. In Italy, more and more public bodies are experimenting with solutions based on artificial intelligence. The Municipality of Genoa has already established a department for digitalization and the application of AI, while Ferrara has joined the ProtocolloAI project coordinated by Bocconi.
Secondo AgID guidelines for the adoption of AI in public administration, artificial intelligence can significantly improve the efficiency of public services, reducing response times and increasing transparency. However, as underlined by the Three-Year ICT Plan, it is essential that these systems comply with rigorous security and transparency protocols. This is perhaps why the “public machine” is slower in adopting these technologies.
Innovation as a political method
In my opinion, what makes Zurini's proposal special is not so much the technological aspect, but the methodological approach. "I don't want to convince anyone with promises," the candidate said. "I want to show that another way of doing politics is possible." His digital department is an attempt to apply the principles of digital innovation to local governance: openness, prototyping, transparency, continuous listening.
Research shows that artificial intelligence in public administration can democratize access to information and increase civic participation. More informed and engaged citizens tend to be more satisfied with public services and more trusting of institutions.
AI Department, a bet on the future of local democracy
The Santa Maria di Sala experiment comes at a crucial moment for Italian local democracy. As highlighted in the future scenarios of artificial intelligence, the real test for Zurini will not be technological, but political: will he be able to convince the citizens of Santa Maria di Sala that an office guided by artificial intelligence can really listen to them better than a traditional one?
The answer will come from the ballot box, but the experiment already has the merit of having raised a fundamental question: how can technology truly serve democracy, without replacing it.
In an era in which distrust towards institutions is growing, perhaps the real innovation lies not in using increasingly sophisticated technologies, but in remembering that the first duty of politics is to listen. And if it takes artificial intelligence to do it, so be it.
