Closing the Gap Between AI and Trust. A Call to Action for State Leaders

At the Public Sector Network Government Innovation Showcase in Richmond, focused on Virginia’s digital future: empowering communities, driving innovation, one theme came through clearly in every conversation. The pace of innovation is accelerating. The pace of trust is not. That gap is where state governments now operate. 

The event convened state leaders and tech experts to chart the Commonwealth’s transition toward “Government 3.0,” a future of proactive, citizen-centric service. Highlighting over 70 modernization projects, the event provided a roadmap for integrating AI and cloud infrastructure while maintaining the rigorous ethical standards and data governance vital to build public trust. 

Across Virginia, leaders are being asked to modernize services, adopt AI and deliver seamless  experiences that match what residents expect in their daily lives. Faster, simple and more transparent. As Commonwealth of Virginia, Secretary of Administration Traci DeShazor put it, government is no longer an abstract concept. It is a daily experience, and increasingly a digital one. 

At the same time, leaders are navigating a more complex reality. New AI legislation, ongoing policy debates and heightened public scrutiny are shaping how and when innovation can move forward. Recent developments in Virginia’s General Assembly reflect this tension. Lawmakers are working to define guardrails around AI use while still encouraging innovation. That balance is not easy to strike. 

This is not a technology problem; it is a trust problem. And, more specifically, it is a data governance problem. 

The pressure to move faster is real. In Richmond, there was no shortage of energy around AI. Agencies are already using AI, including Agentic AI, to improve records access, accelerate contract review, improve planning and streamline case management. These are not theoretical use cases but are happening today. Virginia’s leaders understand the potential of AI but also understand the potential risk. 

 In government, every decision carries weight. Every dataset has implications. Every system must stand up to public scrutiny. Moving fast without control does not just create inefficiency: It erodes trust. One of the most important insights from the Richmond event was this: AI is not introducing new problems; it is exposing existing issues quicker. Most state agencies, not just in Virgina but across the county, are still managing decades of content across shared drives, legacy systems, email and paper. Information is fragmented. Ownership is unclear. Policies are inconsistently applied. 

This challenge becomes even more urgent as we move into the next phase of AI: agentic systems. These are not tools that simply summarize or assist. They take action. They trigger workflows, move information between systems and support decisions in real time. In a contract management scenario, an AI agent could automatically extract terms, route approvals and flag compliance risks across thousands of documents. That level of automation is powerful, but it also raises the stakes. If the underlying data is incomplete or poorly governed, the agent does not just produce a flawed output. It executes flawed actions at scale. 

This is why the agencies making real progress are not starting with AI. They are starting with governance. 

What makes Virginia particularly interesting right now is that both sides of this challenge are playing out in real time. On one hand, there is clear momentum. Agencies are modernizing, digitizing services and exploring how AI can improve outcomes. From contract analysis to benefits processing, the focus is on delivering faster, more responsive services to citizens. 

On the other hand, there is a growing recognition that governance must keep pace. 

The leaders in Richmond were not asking whether to adopt AI. They were asking how to do it responsibly. That is a different question. And it leads to a different strategy. Legislative conversations around AI reflect concerns about transparency, accountability and data protection. These are not barriers to innovation. They are prerequisites for it. 

For years, governance has been treated as a compliance exercise. Something separate from innovation. Something that slows things down. That mindset is changing. 

What we are seeing across Virginia and other states is a shift toward governance as an operational foundation. Not policy documents sitting on a shelf, but systems that enforce consistency automatically. When governance is embedded into how information is captured, classified and managed, several things happen. 

Data becomes more reliable. Processes become more repeatable. Decisions become more explainable. And AI becomes more trustworthy. 

This is what enables practical, defensible use cases. Faster FOIA responses. More consistent contract evaluation. Better visibility into case data. All with auditability built in. AI does not create trust. Governance does. AI simply operates within it.  

See how the City of Acworth is using AI to drive efficiency and public service. 

The path forward is clear, but not easy. State leaders are being asked to move faster while taking on more risk. To innovate while maintaining public trust. To modernize without disrupting essential services. 

The agencies making progress are doing three things consistently: 

For state government leaders, the priority is not to adopt AI faster but to build a foundation that allows AI to be used responsibly, transparently and at scale. 

That foundation is governance. 

Now is the time to take a hard look at your information environment. Where is your data fragmented? Where are policies inconsistently applied? Where do processes rely on manual workarounds instead of enforced standards? Start there. Because in government, AI is not just about what is possible. It is about what is defensible. And the agencies that get this right will not just move faster, they will move forward with confidence.