Harnessing great power comes with great manageable risks

What if we could trim months off government procurements, without sacrificing effectiveness? Let's say we could cut them by half. We're thinking big here -- why not? And while we're at it, let's eliminate half the fraudulent claims paid through unemployment insurance programs. Same for healthcare benefits.

If we could, we would in a heartbeat, right? Many in the technology community are forecasting AI will soon put those kinds of aspirations within reach. And yes, there's an avalanche of hype. We could get buried by its momentum. We've got to listen for the cautions and caveats too.

For one, if government is to enter the magical kingdom of artificial intelligence, our staff have to be ready. That means being educated on AI's potential use, as well as the accompanying risks. I advocated for building AI literacy during a NASCIO panel discussion in late April. Speakers at that National Association of State CIOs conference agreed that prioritizing a human-centric view is essential to successfully applying AI.

We don't yet have that informed footing. Like other states, Georgia has work to do to cultivate AI savvy among its ranks. GTA hopes to help through development of an AI curriculum for state technical leads. That education pillar of our emerging AI program will be complemented by an innovation lab also in the works. There we can illustrate promising AI use cases. We can experiment, collaborate and make AI tangible.

We should learn from other states as well. That helped motivate an April GOVChats session where Georgia Chief Digital and AI Officer Nikhil Deshpande moderated a tri-state discussion of AI as it gains traction in government. Leaders from Maryland, Vermont and Georgia found common ground in their states' focus on AI policy, governance and staff preparation. (See more below about GTA's new GOVChats series.)

GTA has also established an AI Advisory Council to help steer the effective, ethical application of AI across Georgia government. The council comprises leaders from state agencies, higher education and the private sector who will pool their expertise to provide oversight and enable the state to better capitalize on AI.

We're putting a lot into this because Georgia can get a lot out of it. There's upskilling of technical staff to address, identification of the most promising and broadly applicable AI use cases, and more to do. Risks need to be born in mind and provision made for managing them. GTA shares your excitement about this technology and looks forward to collaborating.

Shawnzia Thomas

State Chief Information Officer

GTA Executive Director

Government service delivery

re-imagined at GOVTalks 2024

Would it be overreach to suggest AI will re-write the way our government works? Maybe not when it comes to operations and delivery of services. At the GOVTalks virtual conference scheduled May 14, GTA's Chief Digital and AI Officer Nikhil Deshpande will open the program with a look at AI's likely transformative effect on constituent services.

The importance of effective digital content for government entities only stands to grow with AI-influenced change. And during this year's half-day GOVTalks, speakers from GTA's Digital Services & Solutions team (conference hosts) will address AI considerations and others agencies will need to make.

Planned segments include:

• Training government staff for AI readiness
• Cultivating AI-friendly website content
• High-impact steps to improve the user experience
• Consistency via the Orchard design system
• A look forward and back at the GovHub platform
• Government's evolving use of social media

The GOVTalks series explores best practices for presenting customer-centric digital content by state and local government entities. It's intended for website and content managers, communications professionals and others with an interest in their agency's digital presence.

Showcase puts innovative IT

in winner's circle

Technology trends cycle on. There’s always a next game-changer. Turning the latest trend into tangible reward takes one essential ingredient time and again – innovation. It’s always in demand, because innovative use of technology can open new possibilities.

That brand of insightful application of technology by Georgia’s state and local government entities is just the kind of work recognized through the GTA-sponsored Technology Innovation Showcase. And the 2024 showcase honorees are achieving better service delivery thanks to their exemplary IT-enabled initiatives.

Five projects and the teams behind them are being honored:



• Canvas Badges: The TCSG Roadmap for Launching Micro-credentials Systemwide – Technical College System of Georgia
• Georgia Match – Georgia Student Finance Commission
• Health Care Workforce Dashboards – Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce and Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget
• Peach Pass and E-ZPass Interoperability – Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority
• Reimagining Driver Services: Georgia Digital Driver’s License and ID in Apple and Google Wallets – Georgia Department of Driver Services

Learn more about each of these efforts on GTA’s 2024 showcase projects webpage.

A volunteer evaluation panel selected projects that enable agencies to better serve constituents, operate efficiently, and conserve tax dollars. These are projects changing the way government does business.

Projects selected for this 13th annual showcase will be recognized at the 2024 Georgia Digital Government Summit this fall.

• At this year's GTA-sponsored Technology Summit, you can expect an exploration of key forces reshaping government – digital transformation, AI and cybersecurity. The full-day virtual summit planned for June 11 will once again be directed toward IT and business leaders from Georgia's state government agencies. Industry experts will discuss anticipated developments in each area, with additional input from GTA leaders. The 2024 event will be offered at no charge for Georgia public-sector staff. Details, including registration information, are coming soon.

• Firewalls moving. Storage devices, appliances and servers shifting. All tangible signs of recent progress in the GTA-led data center space optimization and upgrade project at the North Atlanta Data Center. Similar work continues this month, with focus on moving additional agency servers plus network-related systems. It's all part of significantly shrinking the state's computing space at the NADC ahead of a new lease effective October 31 at the facility. Monthly information sessions for agency IT focals also continue in May and beyond to promote tight coordination between the project team and affected agencies. The smaller NADC footprint is permitted by more use of cloud services and decreased on-premises computing needs.

• Pole vaulting is what AI has done to reach number three on NASCIO’s top 10 list of concerns among state CIOs. Some of that impressive lift was explained in an April GOVChats session hosted by GTA’s Digital Services & Solutions team and featuring AI leads from Georgia, Maryland and Vermont. Those leaders compared notes on the fast-evolving AI emphases in their states, ranging from training staff to identifying AI use cases, establishing governance structures, managing state data, and even anticipating AI’s impact on state economic centers (e.g., industry and ports infrastructure in coastal Maryland). Watch for details of the next GOVChats coming up in June. Each session in the series brings together IT leaders to talk across state lines about varying approaches to tackling common challenges in government technology.

• The State Accounting Office's PeopleSoft system now operates from a modern cloud environment. At the start of April it shifted from servers at the state's North Atlanta Data Center to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platform. This GTA-SAO collaboration continues the state's cloud transformation work and has already produced reports of improved performance for SAO's PeopleSoft system. Cloud modernization work continues also toward establishing a Microsoft Cloud (Azure) option for agencies, adding to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud offerings already available through GTA.

• GTA is collaborating with the Georgia Office of the Attorney General to securely store evidence. Lots of it, as in terabytes of digital evidence data received weekly. Using its PeachWorks platform, GTA developed an application that not only stores the data securely, but also associates metadata from the Attorney General Office’s case management system. That facilitates data tracking. Further enhancements are planned.

• Georgia is represented among the recently announced winners of the StateScoop 50 Awards, with honorees in two categories. State CIO and GTA Executive Director Shawnzia Thomas won a GoldenGov State Executive of the Year award, a distinction she also earned in 2022. And, GTA's digital connectivity program, Let's Connect Georgia, was selected as a State IT Innovation of the Year. That effort is guided by Digital Connectivity Manager Oneisha Freeman. The StateScoop awards honor state government IT’s most influential people and its most innovative projects. The state and local government IT community submitted hundreds of nominations. StateScoop narrowed the list to nearly 200 finalists, and then more than one million votes were cast to select the winners.

• For a fourth consecutive year, GTA is a Great Place To Work®. The distinction is awarded by a global authority in workplace culture and is based entirely on what an organization’s own employees say about their workplace experience. The recent survey of GTA employees identified flexibility, opportunities, culture and colleagues as key strengths for GTA.