State and local government IT leaders say the AI payoff is real – and mission-critical – but many efforts are stalling short of broad deployment, according to new MeriTalk research.
The AI impetus is clear: 93% of state and local IT leaders say “getting AI right is essential to mission delivery,” and 91% report measurable productivity gains from generative AI (GenAI) already. Meanwhile, 65% are actively exploring agentic AI, according to the study, “Sandbox to Scale: The people, processes and platforms needed to accelerate AI in state and local government,” underwritten by Dell Technologies and NVIDIA.
IT leaders say they’ve seen the strongest results from AI to date in public records processing and automation (40%), cybersecurity and threat detection (36%), and smart infrastructure and traffic management (36%). Practical use cases include code generation (implemented by 62%), digital assistants (62%), data synthesis (55%), and computer vision (51%), the study found.
Despite the momentum, only 20% of state and local government IT leaders have scaled AI across multiple workflows agency-wide, signaling a persistent execution gap between early wins and enterprise impact. The top reasons AI projects stall or fail include outdated infrastructure or insufficient compute, difficulty integrating with existing systems, poor data quality or availability, and governance or compliance blockers.
The result: 88% say their agency is more likely to launch a new pilot than expand an existing one.
To push past the pilot phase and successfully scale AI, the study points to the three Ps: people, processes, and platforms.
The most impactful people steps include providing training and time to explore AI and establishing an AI leadership team. In the process arena, leaders highlight adopting a formal governance framework and standardizing AI lifecycle processes, signaling the importance of common structures that help address risk up front, speed approvals, and reduce rework.
On the platform side, modernization underpins scale. IT leaders say deploying continuous monitoring tools and improving legacy integration are some of the most useful steps agencies can take.
The research explores:
- Top AI priorities for state and local IT teams
- Greatest opportunities for AI to impact government experiences and outcomes
- The steps state and local governments are taking to successfully scale pilot projects agency-wide
For insights, download the research: “From Sandbox to Scale: The people, processes, and platforms needed to accelerate AI in state and local government.”