This Week in Gov Tech

All right, TGIF! Welcome to In Case You Missed It, GovTech's weekly government technology news roundup where we'll take a look at some of the biggest news from the past week and give you our thoughts on what it means for government, citizens, and the market in general. I'm Dustin Haisler, and I'm also here with Joe Morris and Jed Presgrove. This week we're going to be taking a look at some interesting AI-related bills out of Vermont, as well as discussing our roundup of the State of the State addresses and how bullish governors are on tech. Last but certainly not least, we'll be joined by Teri Takai, our Vice President of the Center for Digital Government. She's gonna join us live and answer our questions about the evolving state governments and what she'd prioritize in 2022 if she were a CIO again. But before we dive into all of that meat, just a little housekeeping. We've got our 2022 Beyond the Beltway virtual event coming up soon, so you wanna make sure to register for this. This is our annual event bringing together analysts and government leaders to share their insights on the market ahead. You'll also have a chance to hear our take on the new market numbers for 2022, so you definitely don't wanna miss that, as well as getting inside the minds of CIOs and CTOs and what they are prioritizing for 2022. We'll have Joe and Terry there as well live, so don't miss out. Visit events.govtech.com for more information. But let's dive into our first story. So first story here, guys, is about a new bill in Vermont to create a permanent AI commission. You know, this is interesting because in light of emerging tech, we've seen a lot of new legislation around the country that's looking at regulating emerging tech, from facial recognition to drones to Now artificial intelligence in Vermont. What do you make of this? Is this a trend? Is this something we're going to see pass and maybe start to work its way to other states?

You know, AI in general has been a topic we've followed for the last 3 years in partnership with NASEO. We saw state adoption in 2019 go from almost nothing to this past year to where you had the majority of states having adopted AI in some form or fashion. States like Utah, for example, already have a center for excellence on AI. I don't see it as a far-fetched thing that this bill could advance where you could have a permanent commission in Vermont. They've been doing some AI and been quite active. So it's another positive thing to see as an emerging tech has gone mainstream.

You know, what I found most interesting about this article is the part where one of the sources here says that in Vermont, it is unclear at this point where we are using AI. There is no inventory that exists. So to Joe's point, AI really has started to spread among governments, and they may not necessarily know how they're using it. And why is that important? Well, yeah, I mean, you want a general sense of where everything is, but on top of that, there could be lawsuits involved because that same source later on in the article says if we do end up using it in a harmful way, we could end up with a million-dollar lawsuit. So It puts states in an interesting position because there are some people who may, you know, not want to spend money to go into something like this. But then again, if you don't spend the money now, then you might end up with a lawsuit later. I think it would be very intelligent for states to have a clear, very clear idea of all the different cases where they're using artificial intelligence.

Yeah, and maybe a good opportunity for states to collaborate with each other. I think we're seeing the same thing with facial recognition. It's this fragmented landscape of everyone trying to regulate it in different ways versus taking a collective approach to what are ethical ways that we can use these technologies to drive value and, you know, share use cases that are there. Speaking of the state approach to things, our next story is around the State of the State addresses, and one of my favorite GovTech curations every year outside of the GovTech 100 is the State of the State recap that Government Technology does where we look kind of inside the actual addresses that governors are making across the country and rank states based on how they're prioritizing technology at that policy level. GovTech has already started curating this. You've got an interactive map that you can go through to see how these governors are approaching this. But what do you make of this, Jed? We'll start with you on this one.

Well, we don't have all the State of the State addresses yet, so we're still waiting on a number of them, but we do have a good many of them already accounted for here. I think that's the thing that's honestly, if I can be just be, you know, completely frank here, the one thing that has stood out to me is that there doesn't seem to be as much discussion, like specific discussion about technology in the speeches that we've reviewed so far. Now, that's not to say that none of the governors had made, you know, interesting propositions. For instance, going down to Idaho right here, Governor Brad Little, he talks about creating a proposal for $50 million in grants to meet the educational needs of children and families. And so these grants would help families purchase computers, internet service, and other necessities. I think that's a great idea because it's sort of like a complement to the existing FCC program that gives people a monthly stipend for technology needs, for internet technology needs specifically. So I think that's great. And another thing he talks about is a proposal for cybersecurity, a $12 million cyber response and defense fund. And again, I think that's a very responsible way of going about things because as we know, we were talking about this last week with Phil Bertolini, the punches when it comes from the cyber criminals, they just keep on coming. You have to be able to see them. And so I really like that proposal there from Governor Little.

You know, look, last week we talked about Massachusetts, right? And their infrastructure funding that included IT. I think when this map's all said and done, and done and populated, you're going to see plenty of references to broadband, you're going to see plenty of references to cybersecurity for the reasons that Jed outlined. But, you know, I think one of the silver linings coming out of the pandemic experience is the important role that tech leadership's playing across the states and the important role that the CIOs are playing. And to our earlier story, emerging tech is playing a critical role. So while we may not see it in every state, I'd be shocked if we didn't see tech come to the top of the list in the majority of the states across the country.

Yeah, I completely agree, guys. And I also think, you know, when you look at infrastructure being such a major focus, you know, a lot of the federal funding for infrastructure has technology wrapped in there. So it's not just the bridges and like the built environment, but the supporting infrastructure to these large-scale transportation systems. So a lot to unpack and kind of follow over the year ahead. But that's our recap for the week that was. Now it's time to bring in our special guest. She's a former CIO for the state of Michigan, California, and the first woman appointed as CIO of the Department of Defense. I'd like to welcome to the stage a good friend and one of my favorite people, our Vice President of the Center for Digital Government, Teri Takai.

Great.

Hi, Dustin. Hey, Joe. Jeff, good to see you guys.

Yeah, great to see you too. I think it's been over a year since we've had you on. So we, we wanted to get back inside Teri's mind and hear what's going on. So thanks for joining us.

Great. Well, happy to be here.

All right. Well, let's dive right in. So now that 2021 is in our rearview mirror, what are some of the things that surprised you about last year? and maybe some of the highlights that stood out to you?

Well, I think that a few things that surprised me last year, I think one was not actually what kind of restating the obvious, and that is that with the pandemic extending, it really didn't give the CIOs the opportunity to shape their agenda as much as I think they would have liked because they were still in pandemic response mode. That's number one. I think secondly, what surprised me is the actual challenge inside the states that we're seeing the result of, which is that even for states that maybe wanted to go back to a different way of working, they're really being challenged by their employees to remain in remote work or a hybrid work environment. And so the CIOs are really doing some basic blocking and tackling to make sure that happens. And I think that that's become, you know, much more obvious than what was there before. From a technology point of view, I think some of the things that have been interesting is really number one, and things that we're seeing going into 2022, some of the challenges that actually are now coming out. So for instance, if you look at the NASEO top 10 priorities, identity management is out there, which I think is largely a reaction to needing to support remote work and the digital transformation. So, and it's called out separately from cybersecurity, which is different from, you know, what we had seen before. So I do think that I'm hopeful that 2022 is going to start to get folks back onto their strategies and their strategic direction. But again, some of that strategic direction has changed as a result of things that happened in the pandemic that are now going to be permanent.

That's great, Tara. One of the things I know you're out there talking a lot about and following in addition to what we do is federal funding. There's a lot of funding that's going to flow to states. Interested to hear kind of where are you seeing the opportunities for states and where, if any, are there challenges that may pop up?

All right, let me take that in 2 ways, Joe. Let me first talk about cybersecurity because I think that there's a natural tendency to say, wow, you know, this big fund of cybersecurity money, this is going to be a windfall and it's going to solve the problems of the world. Well, I think it is important to break it down. While the number has a B in it, it's important to recognize that if you divide that by 4 years and you divide that by 50 states and you realize that a great deal of that money is directed to go to the locals, it actually is not a huge amount of money per jurisdiction. It's not enough money to solve the problem, right? The second thing is that for the states, they're being asked to put up new money in order to meet the matching. And that is a challenge for some states that have kind of moved out ahead and actually cemented good large-size cybersecurity monies in their budgets. They don't really have new monies past that in order to add to it. And so states are kind of, what do I do? I don't have what's required, which is new monies, and my budget is already set. The third thing is that the states are concerned because they are going to have to determine how those monies are gonna get distributed to the locals, and they're gonna have to track it. They're gonna have compliance responsibility. So now they have an administrative responsibility to take care of those cybersecurity funds. So again, I certainly don't wanna be negative. Those funds are really important. But one of the things that we're thinking, and we're following on really to the NASEO guidance, which is— First of all, we're not gonna see those monies tomorrow. Secondly, this is gonna be a time where cybersecurity strategies and plans are gonna be put in place, and it's gonna be more of a planning year. And so companies are gonna have to think about not necessarily how they're selling individual things, but rather, you know, how they're partners in that strategy. The second thing, Joe, and you know this very well, is that, you know, I think people look at the rest of the infrastructure bill and say, wow, It's going to things, right? It's going to water or charging. But I think the piece that, you know, we have to look at is there's going to be a need to track that money. There's going to be a need for compliance. There's going to be a need for states to be able to get grants out there. And so there's a lot of administrative processes as well as just the physical piece of this that our technology companies could really be helpful on. To make sure that that money gets out there and gets spent wisely.

Terri, it's great having you here today. We really do appreciate you sharing your insights. You know, it's clear that workforce is a central theme this year. There are a lot of different subjects that dovetail with that— cybersecurity, emerging tech, remote work, and so forth. How are you seeing states begin to address the evolution of the government workforce?

Well, Jed, I would tell you that I think the states are still in the early stages of that. They certainly have recognized the problem. One state that I spoke with was saying to me, they've been fairly stable. They haven't seen a large increase in turnover, and 2022, they're already seeing almost double numbers as state folks, while they're interested in public service, have other opportunities. So I'm not seeing specific plans because I think that number one, CIOs need to begin to work with their human resources organization to make changes in terms of things like job qualifications. Do you need a 4-year degree? Do you need to be in the state? You know, some of those things are just now coming under discussion and some states are starting pilots. The next piece is that the states are very much starting to focus on equity inclusion. They're really now thinking about that as it relates to their workforce. And so I'm seeing in 2022 that there's going to be a lot more discussion about that as a part of the human resources planning.

All right. And final question for you, kind of reminiscing, but looking at the year ahead, if you could put your CIO hat back on for just a moment, you know, what would you prioritize in 2022?

Well, number one, I would very definitely go back and take a look at where are the areas that the state really needs help. You know, while in fact, you know, everybody was kind of focused on modernization, which I think is important, I think we also need to make sure that we're modernizing those application areas that are going to have the biggest impact going forward. The second thing is that I would be looking at the workforce question much more broadly than the IT side. Every single agency is struggling with being able to get people. And I'm a firm believer that there are technologies that we can bring to bear to do operational efficiencies, to take out manual work that can help the agencies. Not just the technology folks. The third thing I'd be focused on is given that I have a lack of resources and it's a challenge on the resource side, it changes the way I'm going to work with my partners. I'm going to buy more than perhaps what I did before, and that's going to be in many cases a cultural change in some areas for my folks because they're going to have to be thinking services even more. My contract structure has to make sure that I can do that. And I always— I'm a big bigot, Dustin and Joe, about architecture. And I would go back and think about my architecture in terms of, as I'm buying all this, how is it actually going to fit? The last thing I would be thinking about is I need a new model to be able to control my costs, to be able to make sure that I'm being efficient and effective. when I'm in a much more of a services model than the model that we were sort of pre-pandemic, where we were still coming out of how much did we own versus how much were we buying as a service. And that is now going to change the management approach that we're going to use going forward. And I have to still be able to show efficiencies on a year-over-year basis while in fact I'm doing and moving forward on new things.

Those are wonderful insights, Taryn. I think that they're equally valuable for the industry audience and the government audience, but that's all the time we have today. But we wanted to thank you for sharing your insights with us. Join us again next week, same place, Friday, 12 o'clock Pacific, for more GovTech news, insights, and interviews. Have a wonderful weekend.