Do we need AI to spot potholes? Give people a way to report those with their gov account and see how many of them are more than happy to do the work for you, if it means a chance to have a better road.
It takes time to build and run the AI infrastructure to check the road infrastructure for potholes so they have some extra time not fixing potholes meanwhile, which is more like an actual job than a foggy idea and nervous brainstorming, so being harder than talk bells and whistels, pure old boring work only.
Did you even check if this is a thing already before asking "if there could be a way" ?