Digital Government

As the U.S. government seeks to accelerate its adoption of AI, federal agencies should fully evaluate AI literacy and skills in their respective workforces so that they can address critical skills gaps before falling even further behind in AI adoption.

Nigel Cory speaks at the Second Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Telecommunications and Information Working Group Workshop in Support of Regional Cloud Transformation, on best practices for cloud adoption for governments.

Congress initially required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue implementation guidance for 21st Century IDEA by June 2019—not to mention pressed OMB for this guidance multiple times since then—and Federal CIO Clare Martorana said the guidance should “hopefully” arrive this summer. Without such guidance, 21st Century IDEA will remain more idea than reality.

Data is an integral part of digital government, and the United States recognizes that. In this episode, Eric speaks with Corinna Turbes, policy director at the Data Foundation. She discusses the current state of implementing the U.S. Federal Data Strategy, the role of data in improving customer experience, the Data Foundation’s recent report on customer experience and government experience success stories, and how to enhance customer experience through data.

What do customers expect and need from digital government services? Eric spoke with Chris Neff, vice president of marketing and research at Tyler Technologies, an international provider of digital and mobile services for government. Neff describes how Tyler Technologies engages with members of the public, how it assists the public sector with customer research, and what customers are looking for from the digital government services they use.

Sensible applications of generative AI can simplify access to and organization of information, automate bureaucratic processes and data entry, and contribute to design and content production.

U.S. government services need to undergo some serious changes so that they can optimally function for Americans. These changes include putting thoughtful design into services and writing policies that are actually implementable. Eric spoke with Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America and deputy chief technology officer under the Obama administration, to learn more about her ideas to modify the U.S. government so that it can successfully serve Americans in the digital age.

The Federal Data Strategy suffers from a lack of leadership and fails to link its well-defined principles and practices to government-wide and agency-level missions. The Biden administration must revive and reimagine it in order to succeed in transforming the federal government into a 21st century organization.

With funding and political momentum, the State Department should leverage proven features for a modern website and invest in better back-end IT that improves customer experience, reduces waiting periods, and ultimately brings American passport services into the 21st century.

The public sector’s road to improving citizen and customer experience comes with hurdles—from disconnects between IT professionals and customer experience to a lack of permission to test digital services with users. How can governments overcome these hurdles? Eric spoke with Emma Gawen—a partner at Public Digital, who leads the consultancy’s public sector work in the Americas—to gauge her insights on the dos and don’ts of governments’ digital transformation journeys.