A year ago, caution was the government’s watchword when adopting artificial intelligence, with national and state policies focused on the risks of GenAI and setting guardrails to mitigate potential hazards. The Trump administration has changed all that.
America’s AI Action Plan and supporting Office of Management and Budget memoranda, namely M-25-21 and M-25-22, have shifted the stance to encouraging rapid adoption and deployment of AI tools. In that spirit, the General Services Administration has made deals with six major vendors — Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI — to give federal agencies free access to their AI products.
“With GSA involved, obviously that opens [AI] up, potentially, to the entire federal government,” said Michelle Amante, Senior Vice President of Government Programs at the Partnership for Public Service. “As federal employees get more involved — state and local, too — and get more used to using generative AI, it gives them opportunities to see how it’s going to expand.”
The State of AI in Government
To understand more about how AI is affecting you, GovLoop asked readers for their thoughts and experiences. Some 213 of you answered. (Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.) Here’s what you told us.
Most of You Have Dipped Your Toes In
Nearly 90% of you reported using AI in some capacity. Only 11% were not at all interested and more than a quarter said AI is helping them with multiple tasks.
Which statement best describes your use of AI in your job?
- 26% Actively using AI to help with multiple tasks
- 31% Using AI in a limited way
- 17% Exploring some initial use cases
- 16% Not doing much now, but that will change
- 11% Not interested in using AI
Most of You Feel Positively About AI
Half of respondents are at least cautiously optimistic, and 20% said they were excited about the technology. Only 14% said they felt AI could do more harm than good.
What is your general view of AI?
- 20% Excited about how AI could improve my job & improve government services and operations
- 50% AI has potential to help me and/or my agency, but we have much to learn
- 14% AI could do more harm than good
- 16% Uncertainabout its benefits but I’m keeping an open mind
- 14% AI could do more harm than good
AI Is Most Popular as a Writing and Research Aid
Almost 60% are using AI to help with writing tasks and 54% are using it for research.
How are you currently using AI in your role? Select all that apply.
- 59% Writing assistance/text generation (e.g., drafting emails)
- 54% Research, idea exploration, learning new topics
- 34% Summarizing reports/meetings
- 23% Problem solving
- 17% Coding, spreadsheets, other technical tasks
- 17% Image generation
- 25% Other
State and Local Agencies Are Proceeding With Caution
At the state and local levels, AI adoption is moving more slowly, but according to an annual survey by the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO), most states are at least experimenting with low-risk pilot tests and proof-of-concept projects, and 71% are training employees to use AI. State and local agencies are pooling their experiences to reduce the learning curve. “Artificial intelligence has established itself as a transformative technology across all sectors, and the list of potential use cases in government grows every day. It’s everything from enhancing public service delivery to optimizing our resource management,” said NASCIO’s Amanda Crawford Texas Chief Information Officer (CIO) and NASCIO President.
“It’s also pushing things that we’ve talked about for a while, like the importance of data quality and data governance.”
We’re Moving Out of the Pilot Stage
Like everyone else, public servants have spent the past few years getting to know AI. We already have an idea of what the technology can do, since it’s woven into so much of society. Agencies have experimented so they’re moving beyond one-off test projects to adopting more global AI strategies that cover not only technical applications, but workforce development and policy.
“When we have agencies that are everything from state parks to public safety to benefit programs, ensuring that from a tech side, from a training and tool application side, and a policy side, we have everything covered, [that] is really essential,” said Harrison MacCrae, Director of Emerging Technologies for Pennsylvania. “The past couple years, I think people were getting familiar with this technology. Now we’re in a place where a lot of organizations need to figure out how to have comprehensive approaches.”
This article appeared in slightly different form in our guide, “Expert Answers to Your AI Questions.” To read more about what leaders are saying about AI, download the guide: