Readying local government for an AI-powered future

Challenge

How ready is our workforce for AI? Where are the skills gaps? Where should AI be deployed across the organization? How do we ensure that it will be used to augment jobs instead of replacing them? These were some of the urgent questions that technology leaders for a major urban county government were grappling with as they looked to integrate AI into operations, processes, and workflows. Their team recognized AI’s immense potential for streamlining and enhancing the employee and constituent experiences. But because they were tasked with providing technology services for a bureaucracy spanning dozens of municipalities and multiple offices and functions, they needed a better understanding of the county’s level of AI-readiness. They also needed a roadmap for safe, equitable implementation. The county turned to Guidehouse for help addressing both those imperatives.  
  

Approach  

Working closely with the county’s technology team, we developed a detailed AI Readiness Assessment. Informed by surveys and interviews of key stakeholders and IT leaders across the county government, the assessment consisted of a framework that evaluated organizational AI readiness in seven critical areas: strategy, use cases, governance, data management, technology/operations, talent (including workforce skills and AI literacy), and culture. In tandem, our experts created a maturity model composed of five rating levels—Not Ready, Initial/Ad-hoc, Ready, Proficient, and Advanced—and applied those ratings to each of the seven readiness dimensions.  

The result was a full picture—both granular in detail and panoramic in scope—of where the county needed to focus its attention in preparing for AI integration. The assessment shed light on everything from leadership commitment and regulatory compliance to existing cloud capabilities and levels of training uptake. Compiling and analyzing those results, we worked with the county to set readiness targets for each of the seven action areas and then identify gaps. From that foundation, we were able to build a set of more than 175 detailed recommendations that included guidance on employee skillsets, risk management, ethical guardrails, legal compliance, specific tools and applications, and many other functional and operational elements.  

Through regular check-ins with the county technology team as they began to act on the recommendations, we determined an emerging need for more specific guidance on evaluating and approving new AI use cases. In response, we convened a team of data and AI subject matter experts to develop a use-case prioritization and governance model that examines each new use case across three dimensions: risk, value, and feasibility. Each dimension is composed of weighted criteria that influence final scores and the use case’s placement on the prioritization model.  

 

Impact  

By gaining a comprehensive understanding of the gaps in AI readiness across their organization, county leaders have been able to chart a clear, iterative path toward AI adoption—with the speed and extent of deployment tailored to specific county offices, functions, and workflows. Our recommendations and frameworks have formed an actionable, multi-year roadmap that breaks the complex process into manageable steps to help achieve the desired AI maturity level. The use-case evaluation process has empowered stakeholders to communicate their business case and articulate the resources needed for safe, scalable AI implementation.