OpenGov AI Helps Kansas City Cut Its Projected Maintenance Backlog

OpenGov announced on August 31, 2026, that Kansas City, Missouri, used its Enterprise Asset Management platform to overhaul road maintenance, nearly tripling annual resurfacing output and cutting a projected maintenance backlog by more than half after the city confronted a deferred maintenance bill it projected at up to $4 billion within a decade.

The company, which provides an AI platform for local and state governments, paired the customer results with a showcase of new and expanded public works capabilities at the Public Works Expo (PWX) 2026, where it is exhibiting at booth #1639, according to the announcement.

From Spreadsheets to a Projected $4 Billion Problem

Kansas City’s pavement condition index stood at 52 out of 100, and at its existing pace, rebuilding the city’s 6,000-lane-mile road network would have taken more than 30 years, OpenGov stated. Street resurfacing was largely prioritized based on how long it had been since the last repair rather than actual pavement condition, and crews spent roughly four hours a day conducting manual windshield surveys and entering findings into spreadsheets.

“Everything was spreadsheet-based and time-sensitive, since ‘last resurfacing’ was the only metric,” said Garrett Ross, Utility Manager for Kansas City. “I’d been saying for years, ‘If we just had the data to back it up, we could turn this around.'”

Using the platform, the city moved from static maps and spreadsheet-based planning to real-time scenario modeling, shared cloud-based data, and public-facing maps updated daily. According to OpenGov’s customer story, Kansas City adopted Enterprise Asset Management in 2021 and used its Scenario Builder to simulate budget impacts, including a “do nothing” scenario that showed deferred maintenance rising toward $4 billion within a decade.

OpenGov reported that annual street maintenance funding doubled from $20 million to $40 million, while resurfacing rose from 180 to 519 lane miles a year. Over three years, the company said, Kansas City resurfaced more than 1,500 lane miles, eliminated more than 900 hours of manual survey work annually, and reduced its projected maintenance backlog by more than half.

New AI Capabilities for Public Works

At PWX 2026, OpenGov is showcasing capabilities across its Public Service Platform, including:

• 311 Request Management: intelligent intake, translation, and form creation that turns resident requests into actionable work tied to the right assets and crews.
• Asset-Aware Permitting: permitting connected directly to physical infrastructure assets, with workflows covering location, condition, fees, work orders, reviews, and inspections.
• Network Tracing and Valve Isolation: guided workflows that help utility crews trace networks, identify valves, and understand customer impacts using connected GIS and asset data.
• Work Planner: AI-powered scheduling that matches workers to tasks based on availability, backlogs, and operational constraints.
• Recreation Management: online reservations, program registration, scheduling, and payments connected to the same platform staff use to manage assets and work.
• OG Assist: an embedded AI assistant that lets staff check asset maintenance history, find work orders, and surface service requests by asking a question.

“Public works teams shouldn’t have to stitch together seven different systems to understand what’s happening in their communities and get work done,” said Kate Ernst, senior vice president of marketing and general manager of Enterprise Asset Management at OpenGov. She said the company is building on the Kansas City foundation “with AI and new capabilities that help public servants move faster.”

Platform and Availability

OpenGov describes its Enterprise Asset Management product as a single system for state and local governments to manage infrastructure from daily work orders to long-term capital planning, with GIS integration, a mobile field app, and the Scenario Builder forecasting tool. The company says more than 10 million assets are under management across more than 2,000 governments.

The OG Assist assistant is embedded across the Public Service Platform, which the company says spans accounting, asset management, billing and revenue, budgeting, grants management, human capital management, permitting, and purchasing. OpenGov states that OG Assist uses models from OpenAI through partnerships with AWS and Microsoft Azure, and that the Work Planner scheduling feature sits within Enterprise Asset Management, per its OG Assist page.

OpenGov said more than 2,000 cities, counties, school districts, special districts, and state agencies use its platform.