The Future Is Here: And How to Use It 5/21/2026 At the APTA 2026 Mobility Conference panel “AI, AVs, Oh My! Keeping Humans in the Loop,” moderator Shannon Bailey, director-national sales, GILLIG, and five industry leaders largely agreed that artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept for public transportation, it is already reshaping operations, customer service, maintenance, scheduling, and autonomous vehicle deployment. However, panelists repeatedly emphasized that AI must remain grounded in human oversight, strong governance, and clearly defined operational goals. Bailey framed the discussion by noting that transit agencies must evaluate AI not just by efficiency gains, but also by “safety, equity, accessibility, reliability, transparency, and public trust.” She stressed that the central issue is no longer whether AI will affect transit, but “how do we use it responsibly, practically, and in ways that improve service.” Stephanie Doughty, VP of professional services, MV Transportation, focused on implementation strategy, arguing that agencies should first understand their data, workflows, and organizational processes before deploying AI. She warned against treating AI as a stand-alone solution and instead urged agencies to “embed AI invisibly” within existing workflows. Doughty also emphasized ongoing human oversight, saying agencies must “balance automation with human judgment through intentional checkpoints throughout that workflow itself.” Using MV Transportation’s driver recruitment and retention efforts as an example, she said agencies should begin with a clearly defined operational problem rather than adopting AI for its own sake. Satinder Bhalla, principal at TransSIGHT LLC, echoed that sentiment, describing AI as an evolution of transit’s longstanding use of modeling and analytics. “It’s not about are we using AI or not, it’s about how can we better use AI?” he said. Bhalla stressed that agencies must prioritize use cases carefully and establish governance structures to avoid fragmented deployments. He also highlighted AI’s future potential