La Voix du Nord: AI enters Douaisis town halls to simplify staff work and residents’ procedures
La Voix du Nord: Douai, Orchies and Esquerchin describe how their town halls use AI. Dominique Péré, Chief Operating Officer at HelloSpot, discusses sovereign AI and sensitive data.
On October 24, 2026, the northern French daily La Voix du Nord published an article on how town halls in the Douaisis area use artificial intelligence, featuring the views of Dominique Péré, Chief Operating Officer at HelloSpot, the citizen relationship management platform that helps municipalities digitize and simplify residents’ procedures and the work of their staff. Three municipalities describe their first uses:
- Douai is testing AI to sort emails and draft town council minutes, and is looking at what it could save;
- Orchies uses it for communication, sketches and 3D design, as a starting point rather than a finished result;
- Esquerchin has used it for a year to find new decrees and orders, prepare posters and proofread emails and documents.
Read the article in La Voix du Nord (in French)
The article also recalls the rule set by the French government: no sensitive data in a consumer generative AI service. Dominique Péré presents HelloSpot’s approach, a sovereign AI built on the French AI Mistral and integrated into the local authority’s software, which makes civil registry requests, weddings and residents’ reports easier to handle. His common thread: AI does not dehumanize the front desk, it saves staff time and gives them more contact with residents.
