A learning program for notaries in Indiana was not getting good reviews. Robert Fulk, the chief information officer for the Indiana Secretary of State’s office said people thought it was outdated, long, repetitive and clunky. And it was, until his office redesigned it from top to bottom using AI. Artificial intelligence is now infused into every aspect of the program, from its instructional content to its audio and video assets. “It’s really engaging for the learners,” Fulk says on the latest Priorities Podcast.
Also joining this episode is Patrick Carter, vice president of state practice at Results for America, who says that more states than ever are using evidence-based decisionmaking in their budgets. It’s catching on in other areas, too, he says, but it’s still a relatively unused practice. Budget downturns and declining state revenues could turn that around, though. That, and the practice’s increased body of knowledge and winning examples. “We’ve learned lots of lessons from governments over the last 10-20 years about what works,” Carter says.
Top stories this week:
The Rockefeller Foundation and the nonprofit Center for Civic Futures on Tuesday unveiled a new effort, called the AI Readiness Project, aimed at preparing state governments to use artificial intelligence tools to improve how they administer services to the public.
The Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University is also ramping up its efforts to support AI work in state and local governments. Andrew Merluzzi, who’s serving as its new AI innovation and incubation fellow, said he thinks the recent years of groundwork are finally beginning to bear fruit.
The Federal Communications Commission last week voted to approve an order that will roll back caps on phone and video calls to and from prisons and jails. Some rates are expected to double.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.
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A learning program for notaries in Indiana was not getting good reviews. Robert Fulk, the chief information officer for the Indiana Secretary of State’s office said people thought it was outdated, long, repetitive and clunky. And it was, until his office redesigned it from top to bottom using AI. Artificial intelligence is now infused into every aspect of the program, from its instructional content to its audio and video assets. “It’s really engaging for the learners,” Fulk says on the latest Priorities Podcast.
Also joining this episode is Patrick Carter, vice president of state practice at Results for America, who says that more states than ever are using evidence-based decisionmaking in their budgets. It’s catching on in other areas, too, he says, but it’s still a relatively unused practice. Budget downturns and declining state revenues could turn that around, though. That, and the practice’s increased body of knowledge and winning examples. “We’ve learned lots of lessons from governments over the last 10-20 years about what works,” Carter says.
Top stories this week:
The Rockefeller Foundation and the nonprofit Center for Civic Futures on Tuesday unveiled a new effort, called the AI Readiness Project, aimed at preparing state governments to use artificial intelligence tools to improve how they administer services to the public.
The Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University is also ramping up its efforts to support AI work in state and local governments. Andrew Merluzzi, who’s serving as its new AI innovation and incubation fellow, said he thinks the recent years of groundwork are finally beginning to bear fruit.
The Federal Communications Commission last week voted to approve an order that will roll back caps on phone and video calls to and from prisons and jails. Some rates are expected to double.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.
How Kansas lost the 'weird shortcodes' and modernized its UI system
Priorities Podcast
15 minutes 29 seconds
2 weeks ago
How Kansas lost the 'weird shortcodes' and modernized its UI system
Star Wars and disco were hip when Kansas built its previous unemployment insurance system and it was “sufficient,” Kansas Labor Secretary Amber Shultz says. But on the latest episode of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast, Shultz describes how, over the course of two years, the state transformed that system into a modern one, with a modern user interface. A system that had to be taken offline constantly — “a house of cards” — has been replaced by one that has nearly perfect uptime, she says. “Our contact center representatives, they couldn’t use a mouse, and they had to memorize all these hundreds of weird shortcodes for abbreviation back in those days, and then the code was not documented,” she says. Today, the state heralds a different story, one in which call centers see 60% fewer calls and processing time has been reduced by 80%.
Top stories this week:
New York City this week announced a new pilot program that integrates a new emergency alert system with the city’s public schools. The system, which leaders claim is the first of its kind in the United States, provides an automated method of contacting 911 in the event of active shooter scenarios or other threats.
As the federal government shutdown stretches on, state agencies are grappling with technical, financial and policy adjustments following a federal directive to pause processing of SNAP benefits next month.
Nearly all states and territories have submitted their final proposals to the federal government detailing how they plan to spend their allotments of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Given recent adjustments to how the program is administered, though, the current proposals could leave roughly half of the program’s $42 billion unspent.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.
Priorities Podcast
A learning program for notaries in Indiana was not getting good reviews. Robert Fulk, the chief information officer for the Indiana Secretary of State’s office said people thought it was outdated, long, repetitive and clunky. And it was, until his office redesigned it from top to bottom using AI. Artificial intelligence is now infused into every aspect of the program, from its instructional content to its audio and video assets. “It’s really engaging for the learners,” Fulk says on the latest Priorities Podcast.
Also joining this episode is Patrick Carter, vice president of state practice at Results for America, who says that more states than ever are using evidence-based decisionmaking in their budgets. It’s catching on in other areas, too, he says, but it’s still a relatively unused practice. Budget downturns and declining state revenues could turn that around, though. That, and the practice’s increased body of knowledge and winning examples. “We’ve learned lots of lessons from governments over the last 10-20 years about what works,” Carter says.
Top stories this week:
The Rockefeller Foundation and the nonprofit Center for Civic Futures on Tuesday unveiled a new effort, called the AI Readiness Project, aimed at preparing state governments to use artificial intelligence tools to improve how they administer services to the public.
The Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University is also ramping up its efforts to support AI work in state and local governments. Andrew Merluzzi, who’s serving as its new AI innovation and incubation fellow, said he thinks the recent years of groundwork are finally beginning to bear fruit.
The Federal Communications Commission last week voted to approve an order that will roll back caps on phone and video calls to and from prisons and jails. Some rates are expected to double.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.
