Maryland Gov. Moore announces new AI-powered tool designed to help community entrepreneurs

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced on Thursday an expanded, AI-powered tool designed to help local entrepreneurs develop businesses in communities across the state. 

Moore joined other state officials in providing a preview of the new system at a news conference in Baltimore. 

The system, called Maryland Community Compass, is a free online platform the state describes as a tool "that helps entrepreneurs start and grow essential-service businesses in the communities that need them most."

The tool builds on the state's former system, known as Maryland Community Business Compass. 

"Maryland's community developers have their finger on the pulse -- they know the strengths of their neighbors and the potential of their neighborhoods better than anyone," Moore said. 

Tool aims to help build "thriving neighborhoods"

"We're continuing to put real tools and capital directly into their hands -- because building thriving neighborhoods opens pathways to work, wages, and wealth in every zip code," he added. "This platform is about continuing to make government more efficient for Marylanders, helping to create neighborhoods where parents can find sustaining jobs, children can have spaces to learn, and families can plant deep roots."  

A press release from Moore's office said that in the past, evaluating a business project's feasibility meant paying costly consultants or manually searching through complex zoning, environmental, and funding databases. 

"The Maryland Community Compass centralizes this data, allowing local developers and community-based organizations to enter an address and immediately see economic trends, development activity, permitted uses, environmental flags, relevant funding opportunities, and more in one click, across every neighborhood and address statewide."  

AI abilities aim to improve previous system

The release noted that one of the main differences with the state's new system is that it includes enhanced digital abilities created in partnership with AI developer Anthropic.  

The upgraded digital platform "empowers local developers and community leaders with expanded neighborhood-level data insights, new address-level guidance, and over 2,600 funding opportunities including grants, loans, and tax credits required to revitalize neighborhoods with affordable housing, as well as commercial and community spaces," the press release said. 

An earlier announcement about the new system said it would use Anthropic's Claude model to read more than 72,000 web pages to identify assistance programs, gather details on eligibility, deadlines, and contacts and translate complex requirements into plain-English summaries. 

Officials said the AI-powered results "are manually reviewed for consistency before any update goes live to the public."