AI promises great value to the state government, but moving forward requires deeper understanding and some implementation “hacking”.
All over the country, state legislators are beginning conversations about how AI, particularly generative AI, serves residents. In a national environment of shrinking national budgets and increasing demand for technologically advanced workers, AI is committed to new solutions for state governments to address these issues. However, these AI opportunities present challenges. How does the state government meet these challenges? Wisconsin offers good guidance.
AI Promise and Possibilities
Many states face the challenge of lowering the workforce and the need to comply with strict budgetary rules that limit state spending. Unlike the federal government, most states need to create a balanced budget for the year.
To address these issues, Wisconsin and states across the country are beginning to explore ways to introduce AI into government operations to promote new efficiencies. For example, some states aim to generate AI for policy analysis, helping legislators and government officials better understand the impact of long, complex legislative bills. Some states plan to use AI in their workforce plans to more effectively optimize government workforce and other resource allocations. In law enforcement and public safety, some states have implemented solutions to streamline criminal case management. It also sees the value of citizen services, such as deploying AI in the form of chatbots and virtual assistants to provide 24/7 support.
Define AI
According to the Nonpartisan Policy Research Group Multistate, at least 34 US state governments have launched research into AI policies, but only dozens of governors have issued executive orders on AI policies. Wisconsin is at the forefront of efforts by state agencies to define the potential use and benefits of AI. In 2023, Gov. Tony Evers signed Executive Order #211, which created the Governor’s Task Force on Workforce and Artificial Intelligence. In July 2024, the state announced the Task Force’s Advisory Action Plan. It offers a set of policy proposals to implement AI across four major state government functions: education, government, labor and economic development. At the same time as the governor’s report, the state legislature’s special speaker’s task force on artificial intelligence is tasked with defining AI and exploring the methods it currently uses and how it should be used in the state. The parallel initiative demonstrates the importance of defining the terms of AI engagement before moving forward with key legislative initiatives for AI.
Challenge: Lack of understanding
One of the most important tasks is to educate stakeholders about the value and responsibility of AI policies and law. The governor’s plan has identified the need to develop guidelines on best practices in the implementation and use of AI, including ethical and equitable decision-making, risk assessments, and policies/legislation that manage social impacts. The governor’s task force also found that “more specific policy and program expertise will be required” to advance viable ideas, and that states need to “use strategic communication and outreach to promote public trust.”
Shows the value of AI
Alongside the governor’s approach, members of the Legislative Task Force emphasize the need to educate their colleagues and work proactively to change the negative perceptions of AI. One of the strategies members recommends is to showcase successful examples of AI industry adoption applied to state agencies, including increased use of generated AI in tier 1 and tier 2 call centres. Another important area is showing how AI can deal with the shortage of skilled workers by increasing the skill set of state agency employees to bring more value to citizens and allowing them to do more in less amounts while reducing budgets. The state’s advisory measures plan also promotes “awareness of the success of AI technology and guardrail implementation within the state government.”
Private AI: AI efficiency “hack”
Policy and politics can be challenging, but you don’t have to agree to speed up the benefits of AI technology. Technology advances in the public sector often require efficient hacking to overcome resource challenges so that innovation can achieve its maximum potential.
Private AI is one efficiency strategy that allows state governments to navigate the challenges of budget constraints, legacy technology investments, and limited skill sets and decline in the population of technology workers. Already pioneered by budget-oriented global companies, this software-defined architecture allows governments to build AI capabilities within private clouds that make the most of the virtualization stack that locks in current data center infrastructure.
This AI implementation hack allows states launching generative AI solutions to build AI infrastructure one at a time, both small and over time, without breaking budgets.
Building on existing foundations minimizes the need for new hardware computing investments and curbs the energy demands currently spiraling through the sky among major cloud platform players. This is because virtualization allows AI capacity to be intelligently pooled and shared as needed, reducing both power requirements and costs when compared to other approaches.
Finally, since gaining and maintaining the trust of state citizens is essential to AI success, strong control ensures that governments can keep citizens’ data safe and private. This approach allows AI models to be brought into the institution’s existing data, allowing organizations to enjoy the benefits of AI without compromising data privacy or control.
Immediate advantage. New efficiency.
The technological advances pioneered in AI are useless in lab computer vacuums and are profitable when deployed in real IT systems that support modern digital services for state employees and citizens. In fact, new innovations like private AI show that today’s well-managed infrastructure is using today’s well-managed infrastructure in a powerful new way to instantly benefit citizens and efficiency across government services, keeping people in the decision-making loop. AI is a tool that can intelligently assist people rather than replace them.
A nonpartisan analyst at MultiState said, “From a public policy perspective, we are steady in the education stage of AI regulation. We are all on track to this new technology.” They and others warn that states are considering AI deployment models and strategies, but should be wary of rushing legislation that could hinder AI innovation with premature attempts to regulate. The approach they advocate is, “Wait, don’t regulate.”
In a world where transformative and beneficial AI features are being developed virtually overnight, that certainly seems like good advice.
