Leveraging data and AI for increased societal benefit: a look at the potential impact
In July 2025, Code for America published the "Government AI Landscape Assessment," a comprehensive report offering practical strategies and insights for government leaders navigating the AI landscape. The report, conducted in partnership with EY across 14 countries, highlights the transformative potential of data and AI technologies in reshaping U.S. state government service delivery.
The assessment reveals that governments worldwide are facing a convergence of challenges, including fiscal constraints, workforce pressures, lagging productivity, complex geopolitical issues, societal issues, eroding levels of trust, and growing expectations from the public. In this context, data and AI technologies are not just tools for efficiency, but represent a fundamental shift in how governments can deliver public value in the 21st century.
The report offers approaches for workforce transformation, learning, and development to talent leaders. It equips organizational leaders with a framework for strategic decision-making, providing a structure for government organizations to follow in order to advance their AI journeys and reap the benefits of the technology.
Chief digital, information, data, and AI officers will find practical implementation roadmaps and strategies in the report. Pioneering organizations are already capturing significant benefits from the adoption of data and AI technologies, enhancing service delivery and operational efficiency. However, the report also addresses the implementation gap—the difference between the potential benefits of AI adoption and the current level of implementation in government organizations.
The research findings reveal the current state of government AI adoption, the challenges faced by organizations, and a framework for implementing AI. The framework, introduced in the report, emphasizes the importance of responsible AI stewardship to mitigate risks and maximize benefits in public service delivery.
The report stresses that the cost of inaction in adopting data and AI technologies is increasing daily. Organizations delaying implementation risk widening service gaps, eroding public trust, undermining fiscal sustainability, and compromising their core missions.
The "Government AI Landscape Assessment" is the first in a two-part series. The second report, scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2025, will build on these insights to deliver detailed, practical guidance on how organizations can apply the framework to advance their own data and AI journeys. It will also offer strategies to overcome common barriers in AI implementation.
In conclusion, the "Government AI Landscape Assessment" is a valuable resource for government leaders seeking to harness the power of AI to transform service delivery, enhance operational efficiency, and deliver public value in the 21st century. The report is designed to benefit the broader leadership, not just AI-specific officials, and focuses on practical strategies and insights, rather than advertisements.
- The convergence of challenges such as fiscal constraints, workforce pressures, and growing expectations from the public have necessitated the adoption of data and AI technologies for the transformation of government service delivery, as highlighted in the "Government AI Landscape Assessment."
- The report offers a framework for responsible AI stewardship, emphasizing the importance of this approach for mitigating risks and maximizing benefits in public service delivery, especially in an age of transformative data-and-cloud-computing and artificial-intelligence technologies.
- Despite the significant benefits of AI adoption, such as enhancing service delivery and operational efficiency, the assessment also addresses the implementation gap that exists between the potential benefits and the current level of implementation in government organizations.
- To overcome implementation barriers, the forthcoming second part of the "Government AI Landscape Assessment" series will deliver detailed, practical guidance on applying the AI framework for education-and-self-development and personal-growth, focusing on data-and-cloud-computing technology strategies, so that governments can reap the full rewards of AI implementation.
