They have to do this anyway for the AI builds... wouldn't it be a good way of testing how smart the AI build order is? Give your cities an automation script from the one(s) the computer would use anyway? AI default, AI war, AI farming whatever... because the AI already has to work out what buildings to place when it starts a city or captures a city... it's not good at it... but we could help suggest build orders, conditions for placement and things?
I'm guessing you could have a very small number of different scripts to start with, one bothered about city level and another not... to keep things simple. An outpost AI wouldn't try to meet limiting variables for growth (food/housing mainly at this point) and would focus on nearby res (with preference order, maybe which is limiting or which is highest value, or fastest to build...) then money making. Default AI would try to build enough housing to get up to the next level and build in some sensible order. (rather than housing x40 then farm x 1............eventually tax office)
just a thought. I'd like the AI to have a few tried and tested build orders. Still, not really an issue at the moment because buildings stats are placeholders. But if we could set the buildorders or modify them... give them a nice name, couldn't they be looked at for adding to the AI's repertoire? Something for a future build perhaps