Document & Records Management Archives | Page 3 of 37

From Complexity to Clarity: AI-Powered Information Management

In the modern enterprise, information is often compared to oil—a raw resource that is valuable only when refined. However, for many organizations, that “oil” has become a “swamp.” We are drowning in Ghost Content: the vast quantities of documents, emails, and data points that are stored daily, tucked away, and promptly forgotten. This hidden hoard isn’t just a storage cost; it’s a locked chest of insights and a potential compliance liability.

In a recent thought leadership webinar, experts from Info-Tech Research Group and Laserfiche sat down to discuss how artificial intelligence is finally providing the key to unlocking your data, moving organizations from digital clutter to operational clarity.

The New Information Landscape: Breaking Down Silos

For decades, IT departments have drawn a thick line between “Data” (structured numbers in databases) and “Content” (unstructured documents like PDFs and emails). According to the Info-Tech experts, those lines are officially dead.

AI doesn’t care about the format of your information. Whether it’s a row in a spreadsheet or a paragraph in a contract, modern AI agents see it all as Knowledge. To be “AI-ready,” organizations must stop managing these assets in silos. Integrating technology, architecture and governance teams is the first step toward a unified information strategy that is cost-effective and compliant.

Nysa Zaran, data and analytics director of research at Info-Tech, emphasizes the importance of this shift, saying, “One of the moves that we need to begin to make as organizations is to think more broadly about our information as a whole, our knowledge, our data and our content, and start thinking about how we can manage that and leverage that together.”

The Four Dimensions of AI

To understand how to leverage this technology, Zaran breaks AI into four core capabilities that are reshaping the workplace:

Perception: The ability to interpret input, such as digitizing handwriting or transcribing speech.

Natural Language Processing (NLP): Democratizing access to data by allowing users to interact with systems using human-like speech.

Knowledge Representation: Providing context in complex environments and mapping how different pieces of information relate to one another.

Generative AI: The ability to co-create new content based on existing organizational knowledge.

While some of these technologies have existed for years, their accessibility is what has changed. Tools that were once reserved for data scientists are now available at the fingertips of every office worker.

Tackling the “Content Swamp” with Principles

If you turn a powerful AI loose on a “content swamp”—a disorganized SharePoint or a messy file server—you won’t get insights; you’ll get amplified chaos. The experts suggest a principle-based approach to decide what information actually matters. Info-Tech proposes the “I-VALUE” framework. High-value information is:

Irreplaceable

Value-driving

Authoritative

Legally/Contractually relevant

Unique

Enabling to the organization

By establishing these principles, leadership can share the responsibility of data ownership across the company, rather than leaving it solely on the shoulders of the IT department.

Using AI to Prepare for AI

One of the biggest misconceptions in digital transformation is the idea that “we aren’t ready for AI because our data is too messy.” The Info-Tech team flips this script: You can use AI to clean your house.

This is where AI-powered information management comes in. Instead of manual audits that take years, organizations are now using AI for auto-classification, metadata prediction, and deduplication. You can use AI to identify personally identifiable information (PII) at scale or to flag expiring vendor contracts that were previously hidden in the depths of your archives. In this way, AI isn’t just the end goal—it’s the janitor that helps you get there.

“Use your technology. It’s powerful,” said Andrea Malick, principal advisory director at Info-Tech. “Use it to its potential, and you’ll now be set up for emerging technology.”

The Path Forward: Strategy Over Hype

So, where should you start? The panel suggests a “strategic but practical” approach. You don’t need an “easy button”; you need a six-month roadmap.

Identify High-Impact Use Cases: Don’t try to boil the ocean. Find one or two doable projects, like automating a construction foreman’s field notes or linking structured sales data with unstructured client emails to find new patterns.

Focus on Literacy: Ensure your team understands what these tools are capable of and, more importantly, how to use them safely.

Leverage Vendor Partners: Use platforms like Laserfiche that have already baked these AI capabilities into their ecosystem. From natural language extraction to AI agents that handle reasoning tasks, the tools to transform your “Ghost Content” into a competitive asset already exist.

Reclaim Control of Your Information Ecosystem

The shift from complex, fragmented data to clear, actionable intelligence isn’t just a technological upgrade; it’s a cultural one. By breaking down the barriers between data and content and using AI-powered information management to streamline governance, your organization can stop searching for information and start using it.

To learn more about how to unlock your organizations unstructured data and hear directly from Research Directors of Info-Tech Research Group, watch the full webinar.

Watch the Webinar

AEOA Streamlines Community Services and Improves Access to Critical Programs

Delivering Time-Sensitive Services Across Northern Minnesota

Imagine facing a harsh winter without heat. Or struggling to put food on the table for your family. For many individuals and families across northern Minnesota, these challenges are a reality. Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency (AEOA) has a mission to help them. With programs spanning housing, energy assistance, Head Start, SNAP, senior services and transportation, AEOA delivers these critical services to thousands of Minnesotans each year.

The work is both high-volume and time sensitive. For years, much of it depended on paper files and manual processes. Across departments, staff managed large volumes of documentation by hand:

In the Energy Assistance Program alone, staff processed 8,000 to 9,000 applications annually, with each application requiring physical handling, filing and retrieval
The fiscal team managed 100 to 300 invoices weekly, often pulling and re-filing documents to support financial and compliance audits and reporting requirements
Human resources maintained personnel records for approximately 450 employees, stored in paper files that required manual filing, organizing and ongoing maintenance
Housing and community programs relied on paper intake forms and manual processes to support high-volume client services across departments

These processes created delays at multiple points in the workflow. Staff often had to search across file cabinets, coordinate handoffs between teams or track down missing information. This made it harder for AEOA to respond quickly to community needs. It also provided limited visibility into where applications or documents were in the process, which made it especially challenging for managers and program leaders responsible for oversight and reporting.

“We were managing critical programs with systems that made it harder to move quickly,” said Emily Celley, chief financial officer at AEOA. “When your mission is to serve people in urgent situations, operational efficiency directly impacts outcomes.”

Building In-House Workflows to Support Evolving Programs

AEOA initially adopted Laserfiche to replace paper-based files and centralize how staff store, retrieve and manage program documents. Over time, use of the platform evolved into a foundation for how AEOA manages its programs, data and day-to-day operations.

Working with Laserfiche partner OPG-3, AEOA expanded Laserfiche across departments, building and refining workflows to meet the needs of each program.

“From the beginning, we weren’t looking to just digitize documents. We wanted to build processes that could grow with us,” said Celley. “The Laserfiche platform lets us continuously improve how we work.”

AEOA’s team now develops many of its Laserfiche workflows in-house, tailoring solutions to support high-volume, time-sensitive services. This allows the organization to quickly adapt processes as program requirements change without relying on extensive IT resources or outside development.

Streamlining Programs from Energy Assistance to Meals on Wheels

One of the strongest examples is the Energy Assistance Program. Previously, applications were managed as paper files, manually sorted and routed. Today, applications are batch scanned into Laserfiche and processed through automated workflows. Metadata determines how each application is categorized and routed, including directing urgent cases, such as households facing shutoff notices, into priority workflows. This eliminates the need to pull and manage physical folders and enables AEOA to identify and address time-sensitive cases more quickly.

Similar improvements extend across AEOA, where Laserfiche supports a wide range of high-volume, digital workflows across programs:

Housing: Applications for building rehabilitation and home ownership begin with simple digital intake forms. Submissions are then automatically routed through review and approval stages. Families can move through the process more quickly, supporting housing stability.
Education: Staff manage multiple form-based processes, including Head Start childcare acknowledgments and onboarding, ensuring information is collected consistently and stored securely across locations. Families experience a smoother path to accessing early education services.
Senior services: Programs like Meals on Wheels and volunteer coordination use intake forms and metadata-driven workflows to capture participant information and streamline service delivery. Seniors benefit from more reliable and better-coordinated support.
Transportation: Documents such as trip records, driver logs and program documentation are imported and organized using metadata, making it easier to manage high volumes of information and quickly retrieve records for reporting, compliance and daily operations. This results in more reliable transportation services for riders.

“Laserfiche fundamentally changed how work gets done across our organization,” said Celley. “Processes that once relied on manual coordination and paper are now faster, more consistent and easier to manage across teams and locations so services can reach people sooner.”

Moving to Cloud-Based Operations

As Laserfiche adoption grew, AEOA modernized its infrastructure by migrating to the cloud. Moving away from aging on-premises servers reduced the burden of system maintenance while improving accessibility for staff across locations.

A phased migration allowed AEOA to continue expanding its use of Laserfiche without being limited by infrastructure constraints. Today, the cloud environment supports ongoing innovation and gives staff faster, more reliable access to information across programs.

“Moving to the cloud positions us to continue evolving without being limited by infrastructure,” said Celley. “That changes how quickly we can respond, both internally and to the people we serve.”

Strengthening Compliance Across State- and Federally Funded Programs

That same visibility also strengthens how AEOA manages risk, compliance and data security across its programs. The nature of AEOA’s work means it handles vast amounts of sensitive client and program data. Laserfiche enables the organization to control access to information based on roles, supporting confidentiality while maintaining accessibility for authorized users. The system also simplifies audit preparation by allowing staff to quickly compile documentation across thousands of records.

“In our environment, compliance and accountability are critical,” said Celley. “Laserfiche gives us confidence that we can meet those requirements while still operating efficiently.”

Advancing the Mission Through Greater Efficiency

AEOA staff now spend less time managing paperwork and more time supporting Minnesotans in need. “Our mission is to strengthen communities by providing opportunities for people experiencing social and economic challenges,” said Celley. “Laserfiche helped us remove barriers in our processes to better deliver on that mission.”

With a strong foundation in place, AEOA continues to explore new opportunities to optimize workflows, expand automation and improve service delivery across its programs. “Laserfiche allows us to operate more efficiently at scale,” said Celley. “This directly impacts how quickly we can deliver services to the communities we support.”

Higher Learning Commission Improves Efficiency Across Accreditation Processes

Managing Decades of Records Across Nearly 1,000 Institutions

Accrediting a college or university isn’t a one-time event. It’s a continuous process that spans years and generates extensive documentation at every step, including evaluation reports, institutional filings, compliance materials and records.

For the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), an institutional accreditor that works with approximately 1,000 institutions to evaluate all aspects of their offerings and operations, managing this volume of records is essential to ensuring quality and accountability across higher education. HLC depends on accurate documentation and timely access to information.

“Behind every accredited college or university is a decade-long trail of documentation,” said Jon Davenport, CIO at HLC. “From initial evaluations to ongoing compliance reviews, we have hundreds of thousands of documents tied to institutions.”

Each institution’s accreditation cycle involves multiple review points and hundreds of associated documents. Over time, HLC digitized many records and relied on a legacy document management system. But as the organization grew, that system couldn’t effectively manage the volume and diversity of document types. Search functionality was inconsistent and slow. And retrieving records for accreditation reviews took valuable time.

Much of this work began in Salesforce, where staff manage institution data and track accreditation activity. However, accessing supporting documentation required switching systems and manually searching for records, adding friction to everyday workflows.

At the same time, retention processes relied on manual tracking. This created compliance challenges and increased the risk of human error.

Aligning Technology with Accreditation and Compliance Needs

HLC set out to find a more capable and scalable platform. To ensure the solution met both technical and day-to-day needs, HLC involved stakeholders across departments such as records management, IT, legal and regulatory affairs, human resources and accreditation operations in the selection process.

Joan Mitchanis played a key role in evaluating potential solutions and ensuring the platform could support HLC’s long-term records management requirements. “We needed a system that was built for content and records management,” said HLC’s records manager. “Retention, security and the ability to manage information over the long term were all critical considerations for us.”

After a detailed evaluation, HLC selected Laserfiche. It stood out for its records management capabilities, search functionality and automation tools.

Working with Laserfiche solution provider Modified Logic, HLC migrated hundreds of thousands of documents into a centralized repository. The team approached the project with careful planning, focusing on maintaining user familiarity while improving structure and performance.

The migration prioritized:

Clear metadata and document structure
Improved search and reporting
Automated retention policies
A scalable foundation for future workflows

This approach enabled a smooth transition and laid the foundation for continued growth and innovation.

“Laserfiche gives us the flexibility to build and improve processes as our needs evolve,” said Davenport. “We can automate workflows, improve access to information and continue expanding what the system can do.”

Transforming Everyday Work for Everyday Users

HLC quickly saw improvements across daily operations, particularly in how staff access and work with information. Teams can now search within documents, quickly locate key details and manage large volumes of records with greater ease. Combined with automation and system integrations, these changes reduce manual work, improve consistency and lower the risk of human error.

Faster, more accurate search. Laserfiche makes it easy for HLC to refine searches, reuse saved queries and surface the right information without starting from scratch. This is especially valuable when gathering documentation for accreditation reviews. “I can find exactly what I’m looking for the first time,” said Cheryl Rothwell, human resources and operations manager. “Being able to use relative date ranges, like the last 10 years, makes it much easier to pull the right records without extra work.”
Simplified document handling. Laserfiche streamlined routine document management tasks for HLC. Files with duplicate names are automatically differentiated, reducing the risk of missing documents or overwriting files. Staff can also download large sets of documents at once, saving time and eliminating repetitive steps. “It’s the small improvements that matter most,” said Claire Boyan, accreditation processes coordinator. “Tasks like downloading large sets of documents now take about half the time.”
Automated records retention and compliance. Retention management is critical for HLC, which must meet strict regulatory and legal requirements. Laserfiche introduced structured retention policies with clear timelines and visibility, while also supporting litigation holds. These enable HLC to assign retention policies and to lock documents in place during legal procedures or formal investigations while continuing to add new records. “Laserfiche gives us confidence in our retention processes,” said Mitchanis. “It removes the risk of accidentally deleting something that should be retained.”
Streamlined feedback workflows. HLC regularly receives feedback from external stakeholders that requires careful documentation and timely communication. Previously, managing feedback involved several manual steps, including assigning retention policies and tracking documents individually. Laserfiche simplified key parts of this process. “What used to take two steps now takes one,” said Sarah Hallett, manager of legal and governmental affairs. “With the volume we handle, even small efficiencies like that save a significant amount of time.”
Seamless Salesforce integration. HLC integrated Laserfiche with Salesforce to improve access to records. Staff can now open institution-specific folders directly from Salesforce with a single click. “It’s become a bit of a magic button for our users, especially our leadership team,” said Will Mahoney, associate director of information technology. “They can go straight from Salesforce to the exact information they need without switching systems or searching.”

Advancing the Mission with Better Data Access

HLC staff now spend less time searching for documents and more time supporting institutions. Processes are faster and more consistent, with improved data accuracy and visibility across teams.

With a strong foundation in place, HLC continues to expand its use of Laserfiche. The organization created a governance group to prioritize new initiatives and evaluate opportunities for automation and process improvement. Future plans include expanding workflow automation, increasing use of Laserfiche Forms, enhancing integrations with internal systems and exploring AI capabilities. “Laserfiche helps us do our job better every day,” said Davenport. “It directly supports our mission of ensuring quality in higher education.”

What’s Next for Higher Education: Transforming Campus Operations with Agentic AI

Student holding notebooks looking at phone

Higher education is facing a defining moment. Institutions are under increasing pressure to rethink how they manage information and deliver value to students, all while contending with limited resources, rising operational costs, reduced enrollment and the accelerating pace of digital transformation.

In the coming year, agentic AI adoption tied to intelligent automation will become essential strategies, moving from industry buzzwords to operational necessities that will fundamentally reshape campus operations and the student experience. This shift aligns with the Higher Learning Commission’s (HLC) 2026 Trends Report, which identifies innovation as the ‘linchpin’ for success in a landscape requiring both administrative quality and workforce-aligned outcomes. Here are three key trends set to shape higher education in 2026 and beyond.

From Manual to Autonomous: 3 Pillars of the Agentic Campus

Agentic AI with natural language prompts will amplify AI adoption and accountability

In 2026, higher education will leverage intelligent automation and no-code natural language prompts with AI agents to modernize student services, financial workflows and compliance management. The adoption of agentic AI tools will empower non-technical staff at institutions to build and deploy applications quickly, reducing reliance on IT and accelerating digital transformation, especially as teams are asked to do more with fewer resources. AI-powered platforms also improve consistency and compliance. AI Agents, through natural language chat, can help less technical staff get more work done. Ready to have staff breeze through document prep, data verification and content organization?

Autonomous intelligent workflows will streamline repetitive tasks, minimize errors and enhance transparency in administrative processes, making it easier to track progress. This isn’t just about digitizing forms; it’s about deploying AI agents that act as technical virtual assistants to streamline student records management and other high-volume administrative burdens.

With ROT (redundant obsolete trivial) data under control, IT and data teams can redirect resources from data wrangling to strategy using real-time insights to improve student outcomes and institutional performance. This shift will foster a culture of agility, enabling institutions to respond quickly to changing needs and deliver more productive and data-driven support to both students and staff.

Explore how Laserfiche AI Agents can turn chat prompts into hours of time saved.

AI-driven automation and cloud adoption will redefine campus operations and student experience

Rising costs and shrinking staff will push institutions to use AI-driven content management to mine insights from unstructured data locked in emails, PDFs, and archives and leverage data in predictive ways like surfacing early warning signs for at-risk students.

As volume and complexity of campus data continues to grow, leveraging AI and cloud-based solutions will become essential for streamlining workflows and enhancing operational efficiency. Universities will automate document classification and records cleanup, enabling cross-departmental visibility and compliance. Leveraging AI-powered content management can then extract vital information to deliver the right student services.

Cloud adoption will further empower institutions to centralize information, facilitate secure remote access, and scale resources on demand, which will help support hybrid learnings environments and distributed teams. By turning ghost data into usable intelligence, campuses will improve decision-making in areas like enrollment forecasting, financial aid, and research administration all while reducing the manual burden on staff. Ultimately, these advancements will not only optimize internal processes but also elevate the student experience by enabling faster and more personalized services and support.

Data stewardship will become a cornerstone of student trust

AI-empowered content management, and the addition of virtual assistant-like agentic AI, will allow institutions to prove they are responsible stewards of student and research data. As data privacy concerns intensify, universities should prioritize robust data governance frameworks to safeguard student’s sensitive information. In addition to today’s students expecting modern tech integration for academic use, they’re increasingly aware of how their data is used, and they expect transparency, accountability, and care in return. Automated retention, anonymization, and policy enforcement will ensure compliance with FERPA, HIPAA, and accreditation standards.

By making transparency and accountability visible across all content systems, universities will rebuild trust and demonstrate ethical leadership in the AI era. This commitment to responsible data stewardship will not only protect institutional reputation, but also foster stronger relationships with students, faculty, and partners, reinforcing the institution’s role as a trusted guardian of information.

Building a Foundation for Lasting Success

As higher education navigates the challenges and opportunities of 2026, embracing agentic AI, cloud technologies, and strong data stewardship will be critical to future success. Institutions that invest in intelligent automation will not only streamline operations and reduce costs but also create more agile and responsive environments that put student needs first. By prioritizing transparency and accountability in data management, institutions can build lasting trust with students and stakeholders, ensuring compliance and ethical leadership in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Ultimately, the path forward for higher education is clear – those who leverage technology to reimagine campus operations and champion responsible data practices will be best positioned to deliver meaningful value, foster innovation, and thrive in the years ahead.

Laserfiche provides intelligent orchestration and documentation tools designed to help higher education organizations modernize and stay ahead of the demands of 2026 and beyond.

Watch our webinar with California Baptist University to see how their institution is using Laserfiche AI and automation to accelerate operations and transform student services.

Watch Webinar

What’s New in July: Smarter Context for Laserfiche AI, Forms Mobile App, and More

Our July updates make it easier to give AI the right context, complete forms on the go and manage repository information through expanded API capabilities. Discover what’s new in Laserfiche Cloud this month, including updates to Smart Chat and Laserfiche AI Agents, Android availability for the new Laserfiche Forms mobile app and new Repository API V2 enhancements.

Give Smart Chat and Laserfiche AI Agents the Right Context

Smart Chat and Laserfiche AI Agents work best when they have the right context: the documents, folders, search results or collections relevant to your question or requested action. With this release, we’re making that context easier to provide and easier to verify.

Previously, Smart Chat and AI Agents only used the repository entries that you explicitly selected. Now, when no entries are selected, they automatically use the content in your current repository view as context. This means you can ask questions or prompt actions based on what you’re already looking at, whether that’s a folder, search results, a personal collection or a default collection such as Recent Documents.

You still control the scope. To focus on a narrower set of content, simply select the specific documents, folders or collections you want to include. Explicit selections always take precedence, so Smart Chat and AI Agents will use only your selected sources and ignore everything else.

We’ve also added a new selected sources badge that shows what repository content is currently in scope. The badge may display selected folders, documents or personal collections, or, when nothing is selected, a count of the entries in your current view.

Together, these updates reduce setup time, clarify what content Smart Chat can reference and what AI Agents may act upon, and help users confidently transition from finding the right content to putting it to work.

Tip: Collections let you group related documents from across the repository into a reusable source of AI context. Open a collection and Smart Chat or AI Agents can use its contents automatically. Watch the video above to learn more about using collections.

Laserfiche Forms Mobile App Now Available on Android

The new Laserfiche Forms mobile app is now available to both iOS and Android users.

With the new app, you can securely manage your tasks and complete digital forms from anywhere. View all the tasks assigned to you, update key details like due dates and priority, reassign tasks to another user or team or complete your tasks directly from the app.

You can also launch, complete and submit forms on the go, with a mobile-friendly experience that supports image attachments directly from your device.

Download the new app today by searching for Laserfiche Forms in the App Store or on Google Play.

Repository API V2 Update

This update gives repository administrators more ways to configure repositories and discover document information through the Laserfiche API. Administrators can now manage metadata fields, list values and templates, including template field layout, with safeguards for higher-risk changes. The update also adds document size and folder child-count details to support storage reporting.

See the full changelog for more details.

Leading the 2026 AI Expansion in Government: Washington’s Data Governance Framework

Presenter in front of Laserfiche Washington user group

In 2026, AI expansion across government is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. This year’s Washington State Information Professional Management Association (IPMA) Forum brought together technology, business and management leaders to help public agencies navigate this landscape and map out the future of operational resilience and technical innovation.

Conversations with public sector leaders made one thing clear: artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a concept for the future—it is actively shaping everyday government operations. The defining question is no longer if agencies will adopt AI or even Agentic AI, but whether they are prepared to govern it responsibly.

This marks a critical shift for state and local agencies navigating an environment defined by rising expectations, compounding information complexity and growing pressure to accelerate service delivery without compromising public trust.

Why Governance Matters More Than Ever

Across IMPA sessions focused on modernization, records management, automation and digital transformation, three core themes emerged:

The Explosion of Unstructured Content: Documents, emails, forms, contracts, and case files continue to grow across disconnected systems. Much of this information lacks consistent metadata, making it difficult to find, govern or use effectively.

The Scalability Crisis: Manual processes no longer scale. Staff shortages, increasing compliance obligations and growing transparency demands are forcing organizations to rethink how work gets done.

The Governance Mandate: Leaders increasingly understand that AI only delivers value when it operates within trusted governance frameworks.

These priorities closely align with a broader shift happening across government: moving from managing content as static records to treating information as a strategic operational asset.

That is where content management is being reimagined.

Leveraging AI in Document Management

Traditionally, enterprise content management focused on storing, organizing, and retrieving documents. While those capabilities remain essential, they are no longer sufficient on their own. With the rapid growth of AI in local and state government, agencies today need systems that can help classify information automatically, surface insights quickly and support faster, more informed decisions.

AI-drive document management is accelerating that evolution.

At the forum, discussions around automation and AI repeatedly returned to practical use cases that agencies are actively exploring. Intelligent document classification, automated metadata extraction, AI-assisted records retrieval, and conversational access to information are no longer mere luxuries. They are becoming operational necessities.

But what stood out most was the emphasis on responsible AI.

Government leaders are understandably cautious. Public trust depends on transparency, accountability, and defensible decision-making. Agencies cannot afford black-box systems that operate without oversight or explainability. As AI capabilities expand, governance becomes more important, not less.

Innovation Done Safely: Washington’s Framework for AI Governance

Government leaders in Washington state are already establishing formal frameworks for responsible AI adoption. In 2024, Governor Jay Inslee issued Executive Order 24-01 directing agencies to develop guidance for the ethical, transparent, and accountable use of generative AI across state government. The order emphasized that agencies must balance innovation with safeguards around privacy, bias mitigation, security, and public trust.

More recently, Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech) expanded those efforts through the state’s Artificial Intelligence Policy, which requires agencies to identify AI-enabled systems, conduct AI risk assessments and ensure human oversight remains part of decision-making processes. The policy specifically calls for governance frameworks that are transparent, auditable and aligned with Washington state’s AI Principles.

That direction closely mirrors what many attendees at the IPMA Forum discussed throughout the event. Agencies are not simply asking how to deploy AI faster. They are asking how to operationalize AI responsibly within environments that already contain decades of sensitive records, fragmented systems and complex compliance obligations.

This is why governance is emerging as the true foundation of AI readiness.

Rather than treating governance as a compliance exercise that slows innovation, agencies are beginning to view governance as the foundation that enables innovation safely. When information is properly classified, secured and governed, AI becomes significantly more effective and far more trustworthy.

Deploying Intelligent Document Automation in the Public Sector

Early AI adoption often focused on assistance: summarizing documents, extracting data, or helping staff locate information more efficiently. Increasingly, however, agencies are shifting from simple assistance to intelligent document automation, evaluating systems capable of taking independent action within workflows. AI can now recommend next steps, identify exceptions, trigger processes, and support decision-making in real time.

That progression raises the stakes.

AI systems depend on context. Context depends on well-governed information. If data is fragmented, outdated, or inconsistently managed, automation compounds risk.

That reality became evident in conversations at the IPMA Forum. Agencies are recognizing that modernization is no longer just about digitizing records. It is about creating an information environment where data can be trusted, processes can be audited and AI can operate responsibly within defined guardrails.

Core Priorities for AI in Data Governance

To navigate this paradigm shift safely, state and local agencies will need to map out future strategies that move away from manual oversight and toward automated workflows that embed compliance directly into daily operations. To prepare for this transition, public sector IT and business leaders should prioritize these key areas:

Strategic Data Governance Frameworks: Apply consistent retention, security, and access policies dynamically across increasingly complex information environments.

Foundational Workflow Automation: Create workflows to continuously classify, route, and govern information the moment it enters a system, reducing reliance on manual indexing.

Secure Interoperability Standards: Design systems that enable governance policies to travel with the data itself, ensuring security rules remain completely consistent regardless of where content resides.

And perhaps most importantly, agencies are approaching AI as a tool to augment human expertise, not replace it.

That distinction matters.

The most successful government AI initiatives are not removing people from the process. They are reducing repetitive work, accelerating information access, and allowing public servants to focus on higher-value decisions. Human oversight remains essential because accountability cannot be delegated to an algorithm.

This is why responsible AI and modern content management are becoming inseparable conversations.

Turning Trusted Information into Intelligent Action

The agencies making the most progress are not necessarily the ones moving fastest to deploy AI. They are the ones investing in trusted information foundations first. They are aligning governance, automation and AI into a unified strategy designed to improve service delivery while protecting transparency and public confidence.

That is ultimately the opportunity ahead of government leaders.

AI has the potential to transform how agencies manage information, respond to citizens, and operate at scale. But the long-term value of AI will not be determined by the sophistication of technology alone. It will be determined by whether agencies can build environments where information is structured, governed and trusted enough for AI to operate responsibly.

Washington State’s evolving AI policies make one thing increasingly clear: the future of government AI will not be defined by how aggressively agencies automate, but by how effectively they govern the information that powers those systems.

At the Washington State IPMA Forum, that message was impossible to miss.

The future of content management is no longer about storing information.

It is about turning trusted information into intelligent action.

Build Your Foundation for Responsible AI

Successfully navigating the ongoing expansion of government AI requires an information foundation you can trust. Laserfiche helps state and local agencies bridge the gap between innovation and compliance with secure intelligent document automation and AI-driven solutions.

See how Laserfiche accelerates secure government transformation.

AI Readiness Starts With Operational Readiness | Empower 2026 Recap

After spending time with customers and technology leaders at Empower 2026, it was hard to ignore the impact that AI is having on every industry.

During the customer keynote, we heard firsthand stories from leaders and experts across the public and private sectors who are navigating this change in real-time. While most aren’t used to seeing this kind of speed with enterprise technology, where evolution once took decades rather than months, the organizations gaining the greatest value aren’t chasing every new tool. They already have the operational foundation to adapt quickly and put AI to work.

As our speakers highlighted, success usually comes down to having clean data, connected systems, clear governance and teams that understand their processes well enough to improve them.

This is the real starting line for AI readiness.

Moving AI From Experimentation to Impact

Bianca Lochner, CIO for the City of Scottsdale, talked about how quickly the conversation around AI evolved from hype and experimentation to practicality and operational impact. For Scottsdale, making AI practical means moving past the technical specs to focus on the end goal. “We don’t think about technology only,” she said. “We lead with the outcomes.”

That means improving services for residents, scaling successful initiatives across departments and avoiding AI silos with limited value. “Innovation is a team sport,” she said.

The city supports more than 600 citizen services and welcomes millions of visitors every year. Scottsdale already uses Laserfiche and AI-powered automation to reduce permitting review times from days to hours, and to accelerate onboarding and training for first responders. As part of its ongoing modernization efforts, Scottsdale is now deploying its Laserfiche instance to the cloud.

Data and Process Maturity Matter

Desiree Champaco, vice president of IT and supply chain at Diamond Foods, knows what it takes to modernize a 115-year-old company. “The technology is largely there,” she said. “But from a maturity standpoint, are your organizations ready to adopt it?”

Diamond Foods spent years improving the processes, integrations and data quality that allow teams to move faster and make better decisions. One example involved integrating Laserfiche with the company’s ERP environment to eliminate manual invoice uploads and reduce repetitive work inside finance operations. As part of that modernization effort, Diamond Foods migrated from an on-premises Laserfiche environment to the cloud to support future growth and AI-driven workflows.

Champaco also described how AI can help supply chain teams process large amounts of planning data that would otherwise consume hours of manual effort every day. Transportation costs, inventory levels, external demand signals and customer data are changing constantly. For teams managing those variables, AI agents create opportunities to respond faster and spend more time making decisions instead of manually assembling information.

For Diamond Foods, speed matters. So does giving teams the ability to spend less time piecing information together and more time responding to what’s happening across the business.

Trust is Becoming a Competitive Advantage

AI only works at scale when people trust how the systems operate. As organizations begin delegating more work to autonomous agents, expectations around governance, transparency and security are rising just as quickly.

Rob Lloyd, executive director of the Center for Digital Government, described trust as one of the defining challenges of the next several years. “Trust is either going to be something that allows you to act faster and be your multiplier,” he explained, where technology, tools and processes can finally fill the gap between rising expectations and tightening budgets, “or we are going to see it break organizations.”

The faster AI is embedded in everyday work, the more important those trust signals become. The companies and public sector agencies moving fastest are usually the ones putting clear guardrails around how their teams use AI and creating transparency around how AI-driven decisions are made.

Different perspectives. One operational reality.

Successful AI adoption begins with the work happening behind the scenes: modernizing workflows, connecting systems and breaking down operational silos that have existed for years. The leaders at Empower 2026 highlighted how this foundation supports the most effective AI initiatives, helping teams spend less time on repetitive work and more time on what matters most.

The starting line for AI is already behind us. The conversation is becoming far more operational, focused on how AI improves responsiveness, reduces friction and fits into the way work already gets done.

And that’s where organizations are starting to see the strongest results.

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Is K-12 Ready for AI Agents? My Insight from the K-12 Leadership Council

K-12 education has come a long way from cataloging student records in physical filing cabinets. Today, much of the education sector has realized the importance of digitization and moving to cloud-based systems. But as transformative as technology can be, the growing push toward AI-enabled solutions also raises questions on practical applications and governance requirements.

I recently joined Brian Cohen and the GovTech K-12 Council meeting to discuss some of those questions with superintendents, tech leaders and industry experts. The session tackled two incredibly timely topics: building operational resilience against disruptive technology outages and exploring how AI agents can alleviate budget and staffing pressures. Participants shared their unique perspectives and walked away with practical, actionable insights to take back to their school districts.

Technology is No Longer Just an IT Concern

Before the widespread adoption of cloud computing and AI, system outages were nothing more than an inconvenience and an IT ticket, but that is quickly changing.

According to the latest CoSN U.S. State of EdTech Report, districts are aggressively prioritizing technology to modernize legacy operations. In many cases that means connecting and digitizing siloed data, integrating operating systems and automating routine processes with AI-enabled tools. Modernization has helped leading institutions cut core operations, like creating student records, down to seconds. However, as leaders in the council discussed, it also means that technology is increasingly becoming a vital part of delivering student services across all functions — making system outages an operational crisis, not just an IT problem.

As we move into the future of K-12 operations, outage planning and prioritizing platforms with advanced data security and recovery features are becoming increasingly important.

The Agentic Shift: Is K-12 Ready for Autonomous Operations?

As modernization ramps up, K-12 education is standing on the brink of an operational shift. We are moving past basic chatbots and static content generation into the era of AI agents — systems capable of managing multi-step workflows, interpreting complex institutional data and acting across enterprise systems.

These agents have the potential to completely transform daily administration, acting as a force multiplier for overburdened school staff. However, transitioning to agentic AI requires a careful balance between administrative efficiency and strict organizational readiness. Striking that balance means first building a foundational framework for data governance.

Because an agent is only as effective as the data it can access, data quality and rigorous security policies are essential for successful adoption. Reliable human oversight and clear audit trails are also vital components for maintaining student trust and ensuring school leaders retain full visibility into how institutional data is handled.

Brian Cohen, vice president at the Center for Digital Education, explained the concept saying, “Whether districts are responding to a cybersecurity incident, managing a critical system outage, or exploring agentic AI, success depends on strong governance, trusted information, well-documented processes, and organizational alignment. The districts that invest in understanding how information moves across their organization today will be best positioned to navigate both the risks and opportunities that lie ahead.”

Where AI Agents in Education Deliver Immediate Value

Successful agentic AI implementation does not require districts to plunge headfirst into fully autonomous student-facing systems. Instead, the smartest deployments target high-friction, backend administrative workflows where AI can deliver immediate relief.

Districts will find the highest return on investment in three critical areas:

Records Management & Compliance: Transitioning from a reactive scramble to automated, “set-it-and-forget-it” retention schedules that securely store and purge HR or financial files according to state and federal mandates.

Intake & Organization: Automating the tagging, organizing and restructuring of massive backlogs of sensitive student files, including Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 plans.

Parent Communication: Powering mobile-friendly portals that provide real-time updates and bridge accessibility gaps, ensuring consistent engagement for families.

By offloading these repetitive tasks, districts can directly alleviate staff burnout, freeing up human educators to focus on student counseling and classroom support.

The New Era of K-12 with Agentic AI

Technology is now deeply ingrained into daily school operations, with modernization pressures rising steadily. The transition toward autonomous AI agents in education is no longer a distant possibility — it is the next frontier for K-12 administration. As the insights from the K-12 Council meeting made clear, navigating this shift successfully demands a proactive focus on security, transparency and organizational alignment. School districts with strong governance frameworks can begin to harness the power of AI agents to reduce backend administrative bottlenecks, alleviate staff shortages and help their teams keep the focus where it belongs: on supporting students.

Bring your institution into the new era of student services, get the playbook on how to successfully deploy Agentic AI and automation within your institution.

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Innovation Meets Impact: Recap of 2026 Oregon Digital Government Summit

At this year’s Oregon Digital Government Summit in Salem, state and local IT and governance leaders gathered to set the strategy for the future of the state’s public infrastructure. The conversations at the event focused on driving digital transformation to address common public sector challenges through practical AI utilization to provide modernized constituent services — all while maintaining trust.

Oregon’s Chief Information Officer, Terrence Woods, echoed this sentiment, “Digital transformation isn’t about systems — it’s about belief. When leaders trust their platforms, innovation accelerates. I look forward to the 16th annual Oregon Digital Government Summit where we can continue collaborating on digital transformation strategies.”

This focus on trust and innovation aligns directly with the expanding AI governance policies and questions public sector leaders are increasingly facing from their teams and the communities they serve.

Laying the Groundwork: Oregon’s AI Governance Framework

Government modernization has evolved from merely digitizing data and cloud migration to turning massive volumes of information into trusted intelligence. To bridge that gap, agencies are rapidly scaling the use of AI in public sector workflows.

Laying the groundwork for responsible AI adoption, Oregon established the State Government Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council and appointed a Chief Privacy Officer and AI Strategist to guide agency adoption. In early 2025, the council published its Final Recommended Action Plan emphasizing transparency, privacy, security and workforce readiness as prerequisites for scaling AI across state government.

Rather than treating AI as a standalone initiative, Oregon is positioning it as part of a broader effort to modernize how information is governed, shared and used to improve outcomes for Oregonians.

Oregon’s Vision for AI in Public Sector Work

In many ways, Oregon’s vision reflects a broader shift occurring across state government: technology is an asset to humans only when deployed responsibly.

During his summit keynote, “How Public Sector Leaders Unlock Collective Genius and Fuel Breakthroughs in the Age of AI,” author Frankie Russo challenged attendees to view AI not as a replacement, but as a “copilot” to unlock human intelligence and impact. This theme echoed throughout the event, shifting the conversation from treating AI as a mere technical tool to leveraging it as a catalyst for collaborative, human-centric innovation.

But as many leaders at the conference agreed, AI requires strong guardrails to remain effective and maintain public trust.

Guiding AI Transformation Through Strategic Governance

State and local leaders in Oregon are recognizing that AI transformation is founded in governance, not just adoption. Compliance is not a barrier to innovation—it is the mechanism that makes it safe and sustainable.

Translating the “copilot” vision from Russo’s keynote into real-world results demands a foundation rooted in integrity. Summit conversations converged on four critical capabilities required to achieve this:

Trustworthy data: Agencies must ensure the content informing AI systems is accurate, current, and securely governed.

Operationalized governance: Policies regarding privacy, retention, and security must be embedded directly into technology platforms, not just written in documents.

Discoverable information: AI cannot generate insights from data it cannot find, analyze, or contextualize.

Transparency and accountability: To protect public trust, AI-assisted decisions must remain explainable, auditable, and subject to human oversight.

As Oregon advances its enterprise AI strategy, long-term success will hinge on these core practices. By establishing a disciplined data foundation today, public sector organizations will find it drastically easier to drive digital innovation responsibly while maintaining public confidence.

Moving Toward Agentic AI and Autonomous Workflows

Strong data governance becomes even more important in the advent of agentic AI and autonomous workflows.

While generative AI focuses primarily on creating content and summarizing information, agentic AI introduces the ability to act, coordinate processes, and execute tasks. As these capabilities mature, the importance of structured, governed and well-managed information environments increases dramatically. Organizations that lack information governance may find themselves automating inefficiency or creating new compliance risks. Conversely, those that secure their data foundations will be well positioned to innovate public services and even strengthen trust.

Empowering Public Servants with Human-Centric AI

Ultimately, the Oregon Digital Government Summit proved that the future of AI in government will not be determined solely by the sophistication of the technology, but by the quality of the governance supporting it.

Oregon’s vision is firmly grounded in a human-centric reality: The goal is not to replace public servants, but to empower them with better tools and sharper insights to improve constituent outcomes.

From cybersecurity and data governance to AI-driven digital service delivery, this year’s summit delivered the peer connections and actionable guidance needed to move your agency’s mission forward.

Continue the work started in Salem by downloading our executive guide to managing organizational change and scaling responsible AI adoption.

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Operational Efficiency is a Public Safety Imperative: What I Heard at the IACP Technology Conference

In an era of on-demand digital services and deep public scrutiny, law enforcement agencies are under immense pressure to modernize. Yet, at this year’s International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Technology Conference in Charlotte — the premier forum for law enforcement innovation — the conversations weren’t about chasing futuristic tech trends. Instead, the core takeaway from the expo floor was refreshingly grounded. Leaders widely agree AI and emerging technologies should be used to reduce administrative burden and free personnel to focus on public safety instead of paperwork.

While modernization once focused strictly on basic digitization and compliance, today’s leaders recognize cutting administrative friction is directly tied to an agency’s ability to protect and serve. This highlights a massive industry shift: operational efficiency is no longer just a back-office goal — it is a public safety imperative.

The Daily Strain on Police Operations

Agencies are dealing with staffing shortages, disconnected systems, growing records demands and increasing pressure to respond faster while maintaining accountability and public trust. The challenge is no longer simply storing information. The challenge is making information easy to access, trustworthy and usable when it matters most.

Throughout the conference, agencies consistently described the same operational pain points:

Duplicate data entry across multiple systems

Information trapped in departmental silos

Administrative work pulling officers off the street

Difficulty finding trusted information quickly

Growing concerns around AI governance and accountability

These are not isolated technology problems, rather operational problems which directly affect investigations, officer effectiveness and service delivery.

The staffing pressure facing agencies today is also well documented. As the National Policing Institute recently noted:

“Law enforcement agencies today face a difficult challenge: meeting growing public safety expectations while operating within tight budget constraints and with fewer officers amid declining recruitment and retention.”

That pressure is forcing agencies to rethink both how information moves across the organization and the growing role of law enforcement automation

Fragmented Systems Increase Governance Complexity

One of the strongest themes at IACP was that agencies are not looking for another standalone system and instead are seeking integrations to systems they already have. All topics discussed were focused on interoperability, governance, and law enforcement workflow automation. Today’s law enforcement environment is increasingly complex. Records management systems, CAD platforms, evidence systems, body camera platforms, drone technologies and CJIS-related repositories often operate independently from one another. As agencies add more technology, operational complexity increases.

One example discussed heavily at the conference was Drone as First Responder (DFR) programs. While drones themselves may not directly connect to content management, they are driving a growing number of integrations and governance challenges around operational data. The real issue is not collecting more information. It is governing and operationalizing information effectively.

Elevate Public Service with Intelligent Document Management

All my discussions at the conference resulted in one theme: the need to reduce operational friction to serve the community. They want officers spending less time searching for records, re-entering information and navigating disconnected systems — and more time serving the community.

Operational efficiency is no longer just an internal administrative goal but directly connected to officer safety, service delivery and public trust.

Working in the governance-driven information management space, what I heard at IACP reinforced how critical a unified approach has become. Modern intelligent document management platforms connect departments and systems securely, creating a unified data foundation without forcing agencies to replace existing applications.

Building a Foundation for Law Enforcement Automation

Data governance becomes even more important as agencies begin adopting AI-enabled workflows. At IACP, AI discussions focused far less on hype and far more on accountability, explainability and governance. Agencies expressed real concern about how sensitive information is managed, how decisions are documented and how public trust is maintained as automation increases. With fragmented systems and unstructured data, those concerns are justified. Modernization isn’t simply access to digital records, but building an environment where information is trusted, governed, accessible, securely shareable and actionable in real time. This foundation improves more than compliance; it improves operational efficiency.

Automation in Action: Long Beach Police Department

The Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) clearly showcases the power of law enforcement automation. The department streamlined its Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, which redirects individuals to social services instead of the justice system.

To reduce manual data bottlenecks between officers, clinicians and prosecutors, the LBPD automated its intake and referral workflows into a mobile app called GUIDES (Government User Integrated Diversion Enhancement System). Powered by enterprise content management technology, this secure framework lets officers input field data and route sensitive information across city departments with strict compliance. The resulting automated system cuts administrative friction, allowing personnel to focus on community care and public safety.

Learn more about how the LBPD transformed their operations to improve public service.

The New Era of Modern Policing

Operational efficiency is quickly becoming one of the defining public safety challenges of modern policing. This reality was reflected in the dominant message from IACP: agencies do not need more standalone technology, but rather systems that work together to reduce daily friction and help personnel do their jobs more effectively.

When agencies can securely connect information across systems, automate routine processes and provide officers with faster access to trusted records, they gain real operational advantages. Investigations move faster. Administrative bottlenecks decrease. Public records requests become easier to manage. Officers spend less time navigating systems and more time focused on public safety. Most importantly, agencies strengthen public trust through better transparency, accountability and governance.

Bring your agency into the new era of policing. Download our eBook on intelligent automation to learn how our AI-powered tools can help connect your systems and reduce operational friction for your officers.

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