Oklahoma has become the latest state to hire an artificial intelligence chief as governments look to put leaders in place to help them use the technology.
The state unveiled Tai Phan, who previously served as chief technology officer of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, as its new director of AI and technology. last month. In a statement marking his elevation to the position, Phan said the state has a “remarkable opportunity to rethink how government works by leveraging innovation with trust by design to strengthen our mission, improve services and deliver meaningful, measurable impact for the people of Oklahoma.”
Other states have taken similar steps. New York appointed Shreya Amin as CAIO in Marchwhile several state civil servants left other positions to access this position. Texas, for example, appointed Tony Sauerhoff to this position. after serving as an information security officer in the State Department of Information Resources. Others, like Nikhil Deshpande in Georgia, have took the role on as part of an expanded portfolio, while the Vermont Digital Services Agency combined its AI and data teams and last year named Josias Raiche to direct them.
These somewhat slow developments reflect the cautious approach states are taking toward AI and their leadership in the technology, especially as they still try to assess its impact on their governments and determine who can do it. lead them on this. And this remains a far cry from that of former President Joe Biden. now canceled decree on AI, who mandated that each federal agency hire or designate a CAIO. But states still have a long way to go in their fight against AI.
“I am committed to leveraging AI to improve services, facilitate operations and make data-driven decisions, ensuring ethical safeguards, fairness and transparency,” Amin said in a statement upon his hiring. “By collaborating across agencies and with our communities, we will create meaningful improvements in the lives of our residents while positioning New York as a leader in government AI.”
A recent survey of the Boston Consulting Group provides an illustration of the amount of work that lies ahead for states when deciding how to structure their AI leadership. BCG found that while 55% of states have a task force or official responsible for addressing the economic impact of AI and 36% do the same for workforce impacts, only a small number reported coordinated plans to act on these impacts.
Meanwhile, 39% said the lack of a cohesive statewide AI strategy is the biggest internal barrier to adopting the technology.
Steven Mills, managing director and partner at BCG, also chief AI ethics officer and global leader of the BCG Center for Digital Government, said an “interesting paradox” now exists in state governments, where the vast majority of leaders say AI is crucial to competitiveness and economic development, but very few believe their states have a plan to address it. This then creates uncertainty and a leadership vacuum, he said.
“It sounds funny, but the fact that there is no government-wide strategy is the main thing people cite,” Mills said. “The real point behind this is that without that plan, it’s difficult to coordinate government resources. This is something that you really have to bring the whole of government together to tackle, and without some type of plan, it’s difficult to do that and get all the agencies moving in the same direction.”
Having someone as the head of AI can help provide that leadership and get agencies rowing in the same direction, Mills said. This can be tricky, as the role varies by each government and even agency, but someone has to be accountable even if they have many roles and responsibilities.
“There has to be someone within the agencies, and often it’s an AI lead, but part of their mission is to upskill the workforce,” Mills said. “It’s both about upskilling the average worker and enabling them to use AI technologies and understand the basics, as well as the technical staff, who have to understand much more technical details, build the systems and supervise others who build the systems. Someone has to have that responsibility.”
AI leaders will also likely need to play a significant role in procurement, with government spending on AI tools likely to increase massively in the coming years. Kaye Sklar, senior program manager for content and information at the nonprofit Open Contracting Partnership, said the real test will be how these managers manage their procurement systems to purchase, evaluate and manage technology successfully and responsibly.
“I mean, in my mind, what makes a good AI director is someone who really collaborates and facilitates communication within government,” Sklar said. “Because what we know about procurement, one of the challenges of procurement is that it can be treated in a very siled way, and an AI leader who knows the technology and who knows procurement can help bridge that gap and enable better collaboration across government.”
Mills said that while progress has been slow, the evolution of AI should push states to work harder to understand its impacts.
“States haven’t acted as quickly as I would have liked to see, but now that they’re acting, I think they’re really going to try to speed this up, because they realize they need to act,” he said.