Generative AI (gen AI) presents a sizable opportunity for US state governments to redefine services to residents and revamp service delivery. At the same time, it highlights new uncertainties. Given the technology’s potential risks, an effective strategy for state leaders may be to set risk guardrails and prepare to move at scale while piloting lower-risk applications along the way. Such an approach brings real-time application and learning to the process of setting up robust enterprise governance and an adoption road map.

Understanding this opportunity as well as its risks, governments and private sector groups are addressing measures for the appropriate and safe adoption of gen AI. In October 2023, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to govern the development and use of AI in a “safe, secure, and trustworthy” way.¹ In the past year, many US state governments have followed suit by considering or introducing similar regulations, with the goal of improving state government operations while managing the technology’s downsides such as risks related to data security and privacy.²