As artificial intelligence became embedded across everyday workplace tools, CapMetro moved early to establish policy before expanding AI adoption. With Darwin AI, the agency gained real-time visibility into how AI was actually being used across departments, replacing assumptions with data.
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Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro) is the public transit agency serving the greater Austin region. The organization has taken a deliberately strategic approach to artificial intelligence, aligning its efforts with the State of Texas by establishing policy first rather than moving into AI adoption without a governance framework in place.
That decision was prompted by a shift the team was seeing across its own software: AI capabilities were arriving inside tools employees already used every day.
CapMetro took AI governance seriously once it became clear how many existing tools had AI capabilities embedded in them. But policy alone couldn't answer the more immediate question of what was already happening across the organization.
Whenever leadership asked business leaders how their teams were leveraging AI, they couldn't get a straight answer. Without that picture, the agency couldn't assess where it was exposed, which tools warranted attention, or where governance efforts belonged.
"Some of the earliest risks and concerns were what's actually out there, so addressing the known unknowns. We know that AI's out there, how's it being used was the major concern at first." — Frank Trevino, Cybersecurity Manager, CapMetro
Darwin AI gave CapMetro visibility into AI activity across the organization, and the scope of adoption turned out to be significantly wider than the team had estimated.
"The visibility that, that Darwin gave us allowed us to see that AI was being used in a lot more areas than we were expecting. We didn't think there were very many, and we found out there were dozens." — Stephan Schindehette, Data Governance Lead Name, CapMetro
Beyond identifying which tools were in use, Darwin showed how they were being used and by whom, giving the team a live view of where risk was concentrated rather than a periodic snapshot.
"Darwin provides unique visibility into how AI tools are being leveraged, so we're not running on assumptions. We can see real time how AI tools are being leveraged by what departments and what areas we might be exposed to risk." — Jessica Delgado, Digital Transformation Technical Program Manager, CapMetro
With usage data in hand, CapMetro could look past individual tools to the patterns underneath, and direct governance effort toward the trends that mattered most.
"Darwin has given us visibility into what AI is actually out there, and the biggest thing that we have picked up with is trend lines. What are the actual trends that are being used and where can we focus our efforts into addressing those trends?" — Frank Trevino, Cybersecurity Manager, CapMetro
The goal was never to slow AI down. CapMetro wanted a middle path that let employees take advantage of new capabilities while the risks that come with them stayed managed, and gave executives a clear answer on whether the proper guardrails were in place.
"The beauty of the Darwin tool, we're able to make data-driven decisions. It's giving true exposure to how AI is being leveraged and not assumptive visibility." — Jessica Delgado, Digital Transformation Technical Program Manager, CapMetro
CapMetro's experience shows that AI governance starts with knowing what's actually in use. Once adoption is visible, policy, risk assessment, and executive reporting all rest on real organizational data instead of estimates.
Schedule a demo to see how Darwin AI helps state and local governments discover AI usage, monitor adoption, and govern AI with confidence.
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