Process Automation Archives | Page 3 of 35

City of Tucson Improves Service Delivery and Accessibility With Digital Forms

Moving Beyond the Weight of Paper Files

As a systems analyst, Geethmi Dissanayake spends her time helping the City of Tucson improve how residents access services. But long before Tucson began modernizing its processes, the city faced a problem so physically large that officials questioned whether part of a building floor could safely support the weight of years of paper records.

“At that time, almost everything depended on paper,” Dissanayake said. “As the city grew and the services we offered expanded, it became harder to manage information efficiently and deliver the experience residents expected.”

Paper-based processes created delays across city operations. Residents often had to call city offices or visit in person to submit requests. Employees manually routed documents between departments for approvals and reviews. Some processes took days or weeks to complete.

City leaders recognized that Tucson needed a more practical and reliable way to deliver services. They selected Laserfiche in 2020, shortly before the pandemic accelerated demand for digital services and remote access. The priority was to digitize forms and simplify internal workflows with Laserfiche Forms. As departments saw results, use of the platform steadily expanded into additional employee and resident-facing processes.

More recently, the city’s focus shifted toward accessibility. With fast-approaching deadlines to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, Tucson began improving hundreds of public-facing forms to make digital services easier to navigate for residents using assistive technology.

What started as an effort to reduce paper gradually evolved into a broader strategy for improving how residents interact with city services.

Streamlining Resident Services

Today, Laserfiche Forms supports more than 300 public-facing forms and workflows across 18 city departments, including water, transportation and environmental services. Residents can start or stop water service, request the correct trash bin size for their household and submit disability-related transportation requests online without having to create an account or visit city offices.

Before Laserfiche, many of these requests depended on paper forms, phone calls or in-person visits during business hours. Incomplete submissions often created additional delays because city staff needed to contact residents for missing information before they could move requests forward. Laserfiche Forms helped solve that issue with guided submissions and built-in validation checks that prevent forms from being submitted without all the required information.

The city also improved consistency across departments by standardizing how employees collect information and move requests through approvals. Instead of relying on paper handoffs, emails or phone calls to check statuses, departments now track requests directly in Laserfiche and quickly identify where action is needed. Employees spend less time tracking down information, which helps them respond to residents more quickly.

“Laserfiche has teams across the city looking at how they can make services easier for residents to access and easier for employees to manage behind the scenes,” said Sudhakar Makham, systems analyst for the City of Tucson.

Accelerating Employee Onboarding and Approvals

Successfully streamlining public-facing processes inspired departments to modernize additional employee-facing workflows. One of the most widely used is the employee badge request process, which every new hire completes before receiving access to city facilities. Previously, employees passed printed paperwork between offices for approvals. Staff waited for signatures before forwarding requests to the next department. Because it involved building access and security clearances, delays slowed onboarding for new employees.

Now, staff simply submit a Laserfiche form that automatically routes approvals through the appropriate departments. The workflow generates tracking numbers, sends notifications and securely moves requests through each approval stage. What once took weeks can now be accomplished in four days — up to 60% faster.

“Laserfiche removed a lot of the manual coordination that used to happen between departments, saving hours of staff time,” said Dissanayake. “Employees no longer physically send secure documents back and forth, and departments can immediately see where requests are in the process. That visibility makes collaboration much easier and helps approvals move faster.”

Accessible Forms for Everyone

Upcoming federal ADA accessibility deadlines further expanded the city’s use of Laserfiche Forms to meet the requirements for its public-facing forms. Laserfiche designs and develops its products with digital accessibility at the forefront, routinely publishing Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) to provide state and local governments with the architectural foundation to build compliant public-facing solutions.

Even with the right tools, however, achieving compliance can be a massive hurdle for local governments. Tucson’s audit and remediation initiative meticulously evaluated the city’s digital assets. Rather than outsourcing the work, the city tapped the custom JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) capabilities within Laserfiche Forms to achieve compliance. For example, one issue involved browser tabs displaying generic form titles such as “New Submission,” which created confusion for residents using screen readers to navigate multiple forms. Using Laserfiche Forms customization capabilities, the city developed a solution that dynamically updated form titles to improve screen reader navigation and usability.

The team applied these tailored structural improvements across hundreds of forms through a structured rollout process. By utilizing Laserfiche’s robust, developer-friendly architecture, Tucson successfully turned a strict regulatory mandate into a community asset. In addition to strengthening accessibility and usability for residents, the initiative reduced long-term maintenance costs and circumvented the need to invest in additional software.

Expanding Innovation Across the City

The City of Tucson has come a long way since officials worried about the physical weight of paper files. Today, more than 900 employees across departments actively use Laserfiche for forms and approvals.

“We regularly get requests from departments that want to replicate what another team is doing with Laserfiche,” said Makham. “Once our colleagues see how much faster and easier the process becomes, they start looking for other workflows they can improve.”

The platform’s usability also makes it easier for the city to train employees with a wide range of technical experience. “Employees with very different backgrounds learn Laserfiche quickly,” said Dissanayake. “Laserfiche is intuitive, which makes it much easier for departments to adopt new workflows and manage them confidently.”

A case in point is Makham himself, who joined the city with no previous Laserfiche experience, learned the platform through Laserfiche Aspire training resources and is now a certified Laserfiche developer.

“Technology works best when it makes life easier for people,” said Dissanayake. “That’s what Laserfiche did for city residents and employees alike.”

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.

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Agentic AI and Security. Conversations from GITEX AI Europe 2026

People gathered at Laserfiche booth at GITEX AI Europe 2026

Coined the “Elektropolis” for its foundation of modern-day electrical engineering and industrialization, Berlin has been a hub for technological innovation in Europe for the past century. Given the history, it’s no surprise why it was chosen as the meeting place for over 30,000 tech and AI leaders at GITEX AI Europe 2026 this summer.

From the public sector to startups, investors and enterprise leaders, I had the opportunity to connect with the top minds and businesses pioneering Europe’s leading technology and innovation. Unsurprisingly, AI, particularly agentic AI, was at the forefront of every conversation at the event. But amidst the AI hype, a new buzzword quickly emerged: governance.

Unleashing Organizational Growth with Agentic AI

Agentic AI took center stage across the expo floor and numerous sessions, introducing a new meaning to AI assistance. Moving past LLM and chat models, AI agents are designed to act on your behalf.

The introduction of autonomous execution opens a new realm of possibilities for businesses to supercharge their operations. Processes that once took hours of human intervention can now be done by agents, saving valuable employee bandwidth, cutting costs, increasing efficiency and elevating data quality. Across Europe, leaders from every sector are now looking toward agentic solutions to not only accelerate core business functions, but to make meaningful impact at scale.

But with that massive potential comes a new layer of responsibility. Conversations around agentic technology quickly turned the spotlight onto security risks and the urgent need to comply with looming legislative mandates.

The AI Act: Europe’s Governance Mandates

Created to meet the rapid explosion of AI technologies, the AI Act was put into place in 2024 by Europe’s governing bodies to ensure the responsible adoption of AI across all 27 countries in the European Union (EU).

An official press release from the Commission describes the goal of the act stating:

“The EU aspires to be the global leader in safe AI. By developing a strong regulatory framework based on human rights and fundamental values, the EU can develop an AI ecosystem that benefits everyone.”

The act approaches AI governance with a four-tiered risk assessment and sets timelines for implementation. Deadlines for “High Risk” AI are quickly approaching on August 6, 2026, with extensions allowed until December 2, 2027. According to the European Parliament, High Risk refers to any system that could threaten people’s safety or basic rights, especially when used in critical areas like healthcare, transportation, law enforcement, education or hiring.

To navigate this landscape, businesses at GITEX must track two critical milestones:

August 6, 2026: Strict transparency and audit rules take effect. Companies must clearly label conversational chatbots, emotion-recognition tools and deepfakes. Additionally, every EU country must launch a simulated “AI Regulatory Sandbox” to give startups a safe place to test models.

December 2, 2027: Standalone high-risk systems must be fully compliant. Any AI used to score exams, filter job applicants, manage critical infrastructure or assist law enforcement must be thoroughly audited, logged and registered in the EU database.

Failure to meet the deadline requirements can cost organizations up to €15 million in penalty fees.

How Can EU Leaders Safely Compete?

With the impending AI Act deadlines and the rise of agentic AI, numerous sessions and roundtables at the event centered around practical measures for businesses to safely compete with the leaders of tomorrow.

Presentations by session experts repeatedly surfaced one vital concept: information and data management. Before AI agents can make an impact, they need access to the right information. Without a clear and governed data infrastructure, agents lack the context they need to correctly perform business actions, opening the door for compounding compliance and security risks.

In addition to connected data infrastructures, agent actions must be transparent and auditable to meet the EU AI Act demands and maintain security. Combining information management and transparency is a key component to fostering trust, especially within the essential services, public sector and other critical industries outlined in Parliament’s legislation.

Navigating the Agentic Era at GITEX AI Europe 2026

Europe’s businesses, startups and public organizations stand at a pivotal crossroad. While AI agents offer unprecedented opportunities for growth, this autonomous technology also introduces complex new compliance and security risks.

As the conversations at GITEX AI Europe 2026 made clear, transparency, information management and strict governance are no longer optional—they are imperatives for successful AI adoption. Far from holding innovation back, robust governance is the very catalyst that allows agentic technology to scale safely.

When implemented securely, AI agents liberate human ingenuity and drive true digital transformation.

Your future success starts now. Learn how AI-powered content management can help your organization navigate the agentic era with confidence, mitigate compliance risks and reach your goals faster than ever before.

Download the Agentic Playbook

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.

Download our eBook to learn how business leaders are accelerating daily operations and driving real change with agentic AI.

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Info-Tech Live 2026: Agentic AI Best Practices for Tech Leaders

I recently had the opportunity to join 4,000 IT and tech professionals at Info-Tech Live 2026 in Las Vegas to explore the technology driving modern organizations forward.

Agentic AI dominated the conversations at the event, but as I caught up with folks in the halls, a much more grounded concept kept cutting through the noise: practicality. The burning question is no longer if leaders should adopt AI, but how to systematically deploy AI and agents to drive actual business outcomes.

Leaders today are challenged to look at AI adoption, not just as an IT initiative, but as a holistic business function. When you strip away the hype, successfully pioneering this next era comes down to robust data governance, IT empowerment and leadership adaptability.

Five Agentic AI Best Practices

Think of AI agents like enthusiastic interns: they bring tons of potential to your teams, but they need strict boundaries and clear guidance before you let them loose. That balance between autonomy and control is precisely what Jeremy Roberts, Senior Director at Info-Tech Research Group, tackled in his closing keynote where he shared a tactical ‘cheat sheet’ of five event takeaways for successful agentic AI:

Make IT Agentic Before the Enterprise – IT teams have a deep understanding of software limitations and change management, making them the ideal proving ground for agentic technology. Proving tangible business results in one controlled department helps build the baseline framework you need to safely scale AI across the rest of the enterprise.
CIOs Have the Hardest Job – The corporate expectations placed on tech leaders are steadily increasing. As Roberts perfectly captured during the event: “When every company is a technology company — every single one — you are not merely a partner in that growth. You must be a leader. You must be an innovator.” However, most IT departments are struggling with the basics. Unstructured data, disjointed systems and a lack of transparency eventually get back to stakeholders. To start building a foundation of trust, encourage your teams to run regular diagnostics. Success in the agentic era requires a clear look at your system’s weak points, so remediation can begin.
Exponential CIOs Harness Their Data – Technology means nothing without a strong data foundation, but gathering files is only the first step. Data is useless without insight; insight is meaningless without decisions and decisions are only effective when actioned. That deliberate path — moving from raw data to real-world action and strategic innovation — is how leaders drive true transformation.
Leadership is Not Keeping Up with AI – True organizational agility means evolving right alongside the technology. That requires a willingness to redesign workflows from scratch, build entirely new roles around the work AI creates and fundamentally rethink how we operate day-to-day. This is exactly where adaptable leaders will separate themselves from the pack. The hard truth is that you simply cannot run a business at AI speed if you are still clinging to old, manual processes.
With Agentic AI, Buy-In Isn’t the Problem – You don’t have to sell leaders on the immense value of agentic AI. The real problem is in execution. The reason data governance took center stage in so many conversations at the conference is because too many companies have massive governance blind spots. Policies are written down on paper, but nobody is enforcing, updating or reviewing them. If your internal data is a chaotic, unmanaged wilderness, your digital interns are inevitably going to access the wrong files and learn the wrong behaviors.

As discussions at the conference highlighted, AI agents fail in very predictable ways. Keeping your initiatives on the rails isn’t about creating bureaucratic red tape — it’s about establishing agentic AI best practices and governance frameworks to avoid common pitfalls and build an enterprise where every workflow safely connects to and informs the next.

Document Management Is More Important than Ever

Looking at the core takeaways from the conference, it’s clear: document management is more critical than ever. A recent report from Info-Tech Research Group, “Unlocking Your Organization’s Content with AI-Powered Document Management,” emphasizes the true value of content management systems in building that vital data foundation that so many leaders at the conference talked about. With embedded next-gen tools like AI-assisted search and data capture, along with agentic chat capabilities, these platforms have evolved far beyond digital filing cabinets. Intelligent document processing systems are now valuable business partners that help you scale securely.

“With 80% to 90% of data being unstructured – including text, video, audio, web server logs, and social media – a significant competitive advantage awaits companies that can effectively tap into this largely unused resource.” – 2025 MIT Sloan Report

The organizations that lead this new agentic era will be the ones that take control of their unstructured data and build a secure, practical foundation for their digital workforce to succeed.

Selecting an Agentic Vendor

With 62% of organizations citing agentic system complexity as their top deployment barrier, choosing the right agentic vendor is key.

Buying AI isn’t a standalone software purchase anymore; you have to evaluate the whole package — from basic data tools to underlying models and infrastructure costs. That means instead of just chasing features, leaders need to look for an agentic vendor built on a secure data foundation that plugs directly into existing tech and includes built-in governance guardrails for safe AI adoption.

The right partner turns these complex hurdles into a confident step forward into the agentic era. To see this in practice, we recently teamed up with Info-Tech Research Group to look at how organizations like the City of Acworth are already driving real-world results with a reliable AI partner. Watch the on-demand webinar here to learn how practical agentic solutions can empower your teams and transform your business.

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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IIMC Recap: Municipal Clerks Drive AI in Local Government Through Real-Time Leadership

There was a time when the role of the municipal clerk was viewed primarily through the lens of records management and meeting administration. That world is gone.

Today’s clerks are operating at the center of some of the most important challenges facing local government: transparency, accountability, cybersecurity, governance, citizen engagement and now AI-driven transformation. The pace of change is accelerating, and the expectations placed on municipal offices are changing just as quickly.

To help professionals navigate these shifting tides, the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC) Annual Conference brings together leaders from across the globe for intensive professional development and peer collaboration. Capturing the essence of this evolution, keynote speaker Michelle Ray presented “Real-Time Leadership: How to be Ready, Responsive and Relevant in a Radically Changing World.” As an expert in helping organizations embrace accountability amidst disruption, Ray opened the event urging clerks to advocate for their vital roles and reframing them not just as administrators, but as the true “guardians of local democracy.”

“Real-time leadership” is no longer just a leadership concept for municipal clerks; it is becoming an operational requirement.

Legacy Hurdles of Municipal Records Management

Municipalities are under increasing pressure to modernize services while maintaining public trust. Clerks are now expected to respond to public records requests faster, manage growing volumes of digital information, support hybrid and digital-first council operations, and navigate increasingly complex governance requirements often with limited staff and shrinking resources.

While citizens expect private-sector efficiency and instant digital access, the reality on the ground is often defined by operational friction. Many municipalities are still held back by fragmented systems and institutional knowledge trapped in siloed emails or legacy paper files. When information is buried, compliance risks spike, staff burnout skyrockets and leadership inevitably becomes reactive instead of proactive.

This digital disconnect was the defining theme of the conversations our team had with attendees on the IIMC expo floor. Clerks from across the country shared a common frustration: massive amounts of strategic time are consumed by manual records management and meeting prep. One attendee highlighted the staggering reality of tackling a literal “basement of documents”—historical paper files requiring a grueling cycle of scanning, digitizing, and indexing just to maintain public access.

Ultimately, when public servants are bogged down by the weight of these legacy processes, finding the room to step into the strategic leadership Michelle Ray championed can be an uphill battle.

From Strategy to Reality: Deploying a Government Document Management System

This is where the conversation around real-time city leadership becomes deeply practical. For municipal clerks, leading in real time isn’t an abstract concept—it means building the operational capacity to respond quickly and confidently in a constantly shifting environment. It means having visibility into information when it matters, reducing operational bottlenecks and enabling transparent and resilient governance processes.

And increasingly, it means embracing automation, strong data governance and AI responsibly through intelligent content management systems like Laserfiche.

AI in Local Government: From Digital Filing to Intelligent Operations

AI may dominate today’s technology conversations, but for municipal government, the foundation starts with governance.AI is only as effective as the information environment behind it. If records are scattered across systems, metadata is inconsistent, retention policies are unmanaged, or information access is unclear, AI simply amplifies those problems.

That is why content management has become a top strategic priority.

Modern content management platforms are no longer just digital filing cabinets. They are becoming operational systems that help municipalities manage information intelligently, automate repetitive work, strengthen governance and improve organizational responsiveness.

This is where Laserfiche bridges the gap between Michelle Ray’s leadership philosophy and the day-to-day operations event attendees are struggling with. By helping municipalities centralize and govern their content, Laserfiche ensures that information is secure, accessible, and actionable.

Instead of relying on manual processes and fragmented repositories, clerks can automate workflows, streamline records management and improve visibility across departments.

Keynote slide of human hand shaking robot hand

Ultimately, true responsiveness depends on access to trusted data. When public records requests can be fulfilled quickly, when agenda processes are automated, when retention policies are enforced consistently, and when staff can locate the right information without searching across disconnected systems, municipal offices gain the operational agility needed to lead in real time.

Reimagining Efficiency with Automation and Agentic AI

Automation plays a critical role in unlocking capacity. Municipal clerks are often overwhelmed with repetitive administrative work that drains valuable time and institutional bandwidth. By utilizing Laserfiche to automate workflows for records processing, approvals, notifications and document routing, municipalities can dramatically reduce this manual burden.

The goal here is not simply efficiency for efficiency’s sake. Rather, automation creates space for clerks to focus on higher-value leadership responsibilities such as governance, policy coordination, public engagement and strategic modernization initiatives.

And now the conversation is evolving again with agentic AI.

The next phase of AI inside Laserfiche goes beyond generating document summaries or answering simple questions. Laserfiche AI Agents introduce the possibility of systems that can proactively assist users by understanding context, identifying actions, surfacing relevant information, and supporting decision making.

In a municipal environment, which could mean helping staff:

Identify records tied to retention schedules.

Surface documents related to public inquiries

Automate classification and metadata tagging.

Assist with agenda preparation.

Accelerate policy research.

Reduce time spent navigating large information repositories.

Grounding AI in Local Government with Strict Data Governance

Without strong governance, even the most sophisticated AI tools fail. This is why municipal clerks are the natural leaders for this digital transformation. Their role as stewards of transparency, accountability and records integrity is exactly what local governments need as AI adoption accelerates. Real-time leadership in the AI era is not just about moving faster. It is about ensuring municipalities can modernize responsibly while maintaining trust, compliance and transparency.

That requires more than technology implementation. It requires operational readiness.

The municipalities that succeed over the next several years will be the ones that treat information as strategic infrastructure, not just archived content.

And that shift elevates the role of the municipal clerk even further.

The future clerk’s office will not simply manage records; it will drive intelligent government operations. That is why Michelle Ray’s message matters right now. Moving beyond traditional, reactive administration isn’t just about professional growth—it is quickly becoming the definitive blueprint for running an efficient, modern municipal office.

Ready to transform your municipal operations? Laserfiche can help your office eliminate manual bottlenecks, secure your data infrastructure and empower your team with next-generation AI and automation. Explore how public agencies like the City of Acworth are deploying these tools safely and effectively, or take the next step toward real-time leadership by scheduling a custom demo with the Laserfiche team today.