The University of Minnesota Extension has an article on AI, mobile data and boundaries…
Today, with paved roads, remote work, and a highly mobile population, she [DeeDee LeMier} explains the limited data available to rural communities often obscures the real story of how they are functioning. But new mobile data tools are beginning to change this — offering a clearer picture of how people move, work, and connect across regions.
This shift is playing out in rural Minnesota where LeMier, an Extension community development educator, has been working with Placer.ai, a location analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze anonymous mobile device data.
She talked about Wadena County as an example…
In Wadena County, community leaders asked Extension to help blur the lines between counties for an annual planning effort. The request reflected a growing recognition that people’s lives — and local economies — don’t stop at jurisdictional borders.
Ben Winchester, a rural sociologist with Extension, frames the issue as “living in the middle of everywhere,” explaining that since 2018 a majority of Minnesotans now leave their home county to work every day. “People move for regional assets surrounding quality of life rather than solely job opportunities. That is, they find a home in the middle of their desired social and economic life,” he says, challenging long-standing economic development strategies focused solely on industrial attraction.
Using Placer.ai, Extension analyzed three key dimensions of community life: resident activity, visitor patterns, and commuting behavior. The results offered insight that traditional surveys often miss. “For many small communities, especially those in rural areas, there is no detailed information available without spending huge amounts of money to do in-person surveys,” says LeMier. “By having real-time data, we can share local information with county leadership that would otherwise not be available.”
Wadena community leaders found the results immediately useful. “The most valuable insight was seeing how people actually move through, into, and out of the community — where they are coming from, how long they stay, and which destinations are most connected to Wadena,” says Hope Williams, executive director of the Economic Alliance, Wadena County’s economic development agency. “This provided a more accurate picture of regional relationships and economic activity than traditional data sources alone.”
Mobile data, for example, revealed that Wadena is a net importer of workers, meaning a larger number of employees work in the county than those who cross county lines for outside work. Nearly one-third of workers came from regional zip codes, most commonly from the Fargo, North Dakota, metropolitan area.
Williams says one of the most surprising findings was the extent to which Wadena functions as a hub for the surrounding area. “The data showed stronger and more frequent connections with neighboring communities than expected,” she says, “reinforcing the idea that Wadena plays a regional role in services, employment, and daily travel.”
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