North of Seattle, Snohomish is Washington’s third most populous county, and leading IT there comes with a wide range of business problems that Forde finds “phenomenally interesting.” That has meant everything from an ERP overhaul seven years in the making to a formalized data management program across the 28-department enterprise. It of course also means dipping into AI, although Forde is deliberate about the process.
“If you don’t have good, structured data you can’t really do AI effectively,” he said, “so that has allowed us to go into the AI journey with more intentionality and clarity on where it is going to make a difference for us.”
Part of the way Forde leads county IT, which numbers about 100 staff members, is by making sure people know how their work connects to greater goals and by letting them take risks. That’s also how he’s led the county’s approach to AI. A hackathon with the city of Bellevue led to many ideas for AI, while a project with Microsoft helped county HR save 85 to 95 percent of the time it previously took to make training videos. Another pilot in the works will automate redaction of sensitive information from public records requests.
Forde said there was debate about how much restriction the county would place on employees as it integrated AI. They ultimately decided that innovation is the result of trying and learning and even failing. But that doesn’t mean Forde takes the charge of public service lightly.
