Practical AI for state and local government.
Wellesley Cove Group helps state and local agencies put AI to work where the rules are dense and the paperwork is heavy: disaster recovery, infrastructure, and grants management. And where the tools have arrived before the habits: AI adoption across the workforce. Grounded in policy, governed from day one, and built with the people who do the work.
Two areas where agencies bring us in.
Disaster recovery, Public Assistance, and grants.
FEMA Public Assistance, infrastructure recovery, and grants management run on dense policy that changes from one disaster to the next. We put that policy to work: cited answers, documentation checks, and cleaner closeouts. More on recovery and grants →
Change management and AI adoption.
Giving staff access to ChatGPT or another AI assistant is the easy part. We help agencies turn access into everyday, well-governed use that leadership can measure. More on AI adoption →
Recovery dollars move at the speed of their documentation.
After a declared disaster, applicants and recipients work through the PAPPG, the Stafford Act, 44 CFR, and 2 CFR 200 while the recovery clock runs. Eligibility, procurement files, insurance reductions, appeals, and closeout packages all turn on the right citation, and the staff who know the rules are stretched thin.
Where AI helps:
- Eligibility review across applicant, facility, work, and cost
- Checking scopes of work, contracts, and records against the policy that applies
- Insurance and duplication-of-benefits questions
- Appeal preparation and project closeout, against the deadlines that govern them
- Grants management workflows: tracking obligations, documentation, and deadlines across projects
Infrastructure programs run on the same discipline. We built real-time visibility into timelines, budget, and spend across a $1B+ capital program. Read the case study →
PAPPAIA: policy-grounded AI for FEMA Public Assistance.
Built by Wellesley Cove Group, PAPPAIA (the Public Assistance Policy & Program AI Advisor) is an AI assistant for emergency management teams working in FEMA Public Assistance disaster recovery. It answers from a fixed library of the PAPPG, federal regulations, and published FEMA Public Assistance policy, never the open web, and every answer cites the section it came from, so you can check it against the source.
It applies the PAPPG edition in force on the declaration date (Version 4 or v5.0 Amended, which together cover declarations from June 1, 2020 onward), and it covers the questions practitioners bring: eligibility, scope and damage, procurement, insurance, appeals, and closeout. It runs hosted, or inside your own environment.
Try the public preview → · Browse the PA document library → · Read the PA policy guides → · Deployment options →
The public preview is for questions about published policy. Do not enter agency records or sensitive information there; for work on agency data, PAPPAIA can be deployed privately in your own environment. PAPPAIA is an independent Wellesley Cove Group offering. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by FEMA or any government agency.
Access is the easy part. Adoption is the work.
Agencies are putting ChatGPT and similar assistants in front of their staff. The value depends on whether people know what to use the tool for, what they may put into it, and how to check what comes back.
Our approach, in any agency:
We are currently working with a state department of transportation on ChatGPT adoption.
Why AI initiatives stall, including change-management debt →
Built for public accountability.
Cited, checkable answers.
Policy work needs a source. Our agents answer from the documents that govern the work and show where each answer came from.
Your data, your posture.
Architecture is matched to the sensitivity of the data: private, hybrid, or external. See where your data lives →
People stay in the loop.
AI drafts, checks, and flags. Your staff make the decisions, and every workflow is designed around their review.
You keep what we build.
Workflows, prompts, and documentation stay with the agency, with no lock-in to a single model or vendor.
Start with one workflow.
Whether it is a Public Assistance backlog or an AI assistant your staff are not yet using, we start with one high-value workflow, redesigned with your team and running as a secure prototype in five weeks.
Working a FEMA Public Assistance project now? See how PAPPAIA can help →
