Boston Tests AI Agents to Simplify Access to Public Data

The City of Boston has long provided information on transportation, construction and municipal services through an open-data portal, but fragmented dataset formats and complex queries have made the information difficult to access. The city is testing AI agents and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) in an effort to turn static data into a natural-language conversational interface and reduce the cost of accessing city information for residents and developers.

Boston is now assessing whether AI agents can connect directly to its public data, allowing users to get answers through conversation instead of navigating the data portal page by page. Available information does not disclose when the test began, how much was invested, how many datasets it covers or when the service might formally launch. The city has yet to evaluate and disclose the results.