From Static Files to 2.5 Hours Saved Per Search. A California Water District's AI Story.
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How Las Virgenes Municipal Water District Reclaimed More than 1,000 Staff Hours in 2025
Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) serves more than 75,000 residents across five communities in western Los Angeles County.
Like many public entities, decades of institutional knowledge sat buried in PDFs, board memos, and the heads of long-tenured staff. Employees lost hours hunting for answers, and critical knowledge walked out the door with every retirement. Ivo Nkwenji, LVMWD's Information Systems Manager, was tasked with finding a better way of interacting with their data using AI: safely, securely, and with low risk.
He wasn't looking for a flashy demo. He needed something staff could rely on from day one. After evaluating the landscape, Madison AI was the clear choice for their organization.
“Madison AI produced 3-4x more than what we expected it could. It’s allowed us to dream more. Every time someone uses it, it saves 2.5 hours of time.”
Ivo Nkwenji, Information Systems Manager
Daily interactions
Reports produced in 12 months
Hours saved on administrative tasks
Avoided in administrative overhead
Siloed, Inaccessible Data
Like many public agencies, LVMWD's institutional knowledge was trapped in siloed documents, legacy systems, and the heads of long-tenured staff. Finding answers to operational, financial, or governance questions meant hours of digging. Or hoping the right person was available. Municipal districts face a persistent challenge: staff must access scattered information quickly while keeping data secure.
Elongated Data Search Times
LVMWD employees often spent hours — sometimes days — searching through PDFs, spreadsheets, videos, and board memos to answer questions about projects, budgets, or historical decisions.
Lost Information Over Staff Transitions
Critical knowledge often resided with a few long-time staff members, creating bottlenecks whenever they were unavailable.
Inconsistent Report Drafts
Staff reports and other high-volume reports take hours to produce, and leadership spending much of their time revising content in preparation for upcoming board meetings.
LVMWD’s Data, Electrified by AI
Internal Feedback
Ivo focused on understanding the needs of employees and leadership across departments by listening to their challenges.
Data Collection & Application Development
Madison AI built and deployed their Districtwide AI Assistant, built from public records, codes, ordinances, minutes, and previous decisions.
Staff Training
Ivo and Madison AI collaborated to support implementation, coaching staff on best practices, answering questions, and showing them how to maximize the assistant’s value.
Full Adoption
With Madison AI in place, staff embraced the system, using it to answer questions, prepare reports, and stay up to date on both historical and ongoing projects.
2.5 Hours of Time Savings for Every Search
Madison AI deployed an AI-powered knowledge assistant trained on LVMWD's internal documents. Staff now get instant answers on water infrastructure, budgets, board decisions, and HR policies, saving an estimated 2.5 hours per day for knowledge workers.
Madison AI freed LVMWD staff to focus on what matters most: enhancing systems and delivering reliable, high-quality water to communities across the cities of Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Westlake Village, and unincorporated areas of western Los Angeles County.
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