But that's not the only big trend of the moment.
Federal funding stands as another hot — and perhaps more urgent — topic, as demonstrated this week at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) conference in Denver.
Whether one agrees with President Donald Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency and federal spending cuts or not, there is general agreement that public agencies face hard choices in the coming months about which tech programs to prioritize as grants and other sources of funding run dry.
Not only that, but the potential for even more federal cuts looms over planning and budgeting at the state level, challenging CIOs and their staffs, who are in the midst of a historic effort to bring more digital, mobile, data and cybersecurity tools to government.
Confusion and uncertainty are common, a point brought home during private lunchtime and break conversations, and publicly during a panel session that included Meredith Ward, NASCIO’s deputy executive director.
Before NASCIO, she had a lengthy career working among members of Congress and other government professionals in Washington, D.C., during which, she told attendees, she basically became an expert on the federal budget process, which typically followed a series of predetermined steps no matter the administration, offering a sense of predictability.
That no longer holds.
“Everything has really changed and turned around in D.C.,” Ward said.
Suppliers of government technology have tended to put an optimistic spin on the cuts coming from the Trump administration, describing the situation as a chance to show how their own tools can bring new efficiencies to cash-strapped state and local agencies.
While there was no apparent feeling of despair at the conference about federal cuts, the stakes are extremely high, as new NASCIO data show.
Even as half of respondents to the group’s most recent CIO survey reported funding increases for their work, 90 percent said they are using chargeback models in some way, which can lead to funding vulnerabilities amid federal budget cuts.
As one survey respondent put it: “We have a chargeback model, and as the federal changes impact our agencies, we will see impact on their level of resourcing.”
Another survey respondent, meanwhile, worried about how cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — President Trump reportedly holds a grudge against a former director of that agency because he found no evidence of Democrats stealing the 2020 election — will bring harm.
“CISA’s funding being cut will impact our office,” that unnamed survey respondent said, according to the NASCIO report.
Back in the public forum at the conference, other state officials talked about how federal cuts might impact them, and what they are doing to prepare.
Wisconsin has a biennial budget process, which increases the uncertainty around funding for state programs, said Trina Zanow, the state’s CIO. Officials such as her have limited options to change or shift funding outside of the official budget process.
“It may not be an immediate impact this year,” she said of ongoing and proposed federal cuts, “but it will be in future years.”
Some state programs receive up to 80 percent of their funding via the federal government, she said. Emergency management and health and human services are two agencies that depend on federal money.
Every CIO knows the power of creativity and improvisation when it comes to funding, but those talents go only so far.
“We can’t kick that ball too far down the road because we know we will have other challenges,” Zanow said.
These times call for CIOs to use other skills, she said.
“Relationship management becomes critical,” Zanow said.
In Washington state, tech officials already face a $30 million deficit, part of general across-the-board cutbacks, according to Amy Pearson, chief of staff to the Washington Technology Solutions director and state CIO.
“None of that includes the federal cuts coming down,” she told conference attendees.
Even so, she said state tech leaders are determined not to cut staff even as Pearson and her colleagues push forward with new tools, including a self-funded resident portal.
“We will be aggressive in doing the right thing to serve our people,” she said.
Doing so, in fact, likely will require the involvement of that other hot and urgent part of government technology: artificial intelligence.
“We are looking how to infuse AI components to look for efficiencies,” she said, roughly echoing some of the recent optimistic comments from suppliers of gov tech.
