Utah has made progress on a lot of major IT initiatives in the past year, Fuller said, but the state-endorsed digital identity project is the one of which he is most proud.
“We’re trying to change the way the Internet works,” he said, noting that it is currently “fundamentally broken” as there is not a strong and secure way for people to identify themselves across the digital landscape.
Utah leadership has a goal of creating a personalized identity — which some call a self-sovereign or individual identity — backed by an endorsed credential that residents can use to establish trust about who they are on the Internet. This is a complex project, and although it hasn’t been rolled into production yet, the state has been making progress behind the scenes. And Utah is not working on this in a silo, but rather alongside the state Legislature and with other states, to advance the effort while protecting individuals’ privacy and constitutional liberties. For complex, long-term projects like this, Fuller said, communication with stakeholders is essential.
The other driving force with a long-term IT project, he said, is maintaining focus on the end user. One instance is the state’s Customer Experience Initiative, which officials have rolled out over the last few years. It entails making better use of data to inform the customer experience across state agencies. Through expanded data collection, the state can more effectively track users’ experiences.
“Using that data, and visibility into that data, has really helped us to identify and address some pain points and make government run better,” said Fuller, who was recognized earlier this year as one of Government Technology’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers.
An example is the state’s shift to communicate proactively with family and friends of people who are incarcerated so they can more easily navigate the system and reach those individuals. The idea is that helping people who are incarcerated maintain relationships will ultimately reduce recidivism.
Another project making major progress is Utah’s efforts to modernize the solutions powering state government. This includes major upgrades to every significant system in the state over the past four years. Now, Utah is looking to refresh its Human Capital Management System live, with a target date of April; this will complete the state’s suite of big enterprise changes. A lot of this long-term modernization project has “come to fruition in this last year,” he said.
Cybersecurity is another focus. The U.S. Congress is currently trying to revive a federal grant program to support state and local cybersecurity work, but reductions in federal cyber funding are creating constraints for states.
“Funding for cybersecurity going forward is going to be a challenge, but we are hoping that the federal government will step up and continue the program funding,” Fuller said. “If not, we’re hoping our state Legislature will step up and fund it.”
With or without federal government support, Utah’s whole-of-state approach to cybersecurity aims to keep systems safe from increasingly common threats, the CIO said. The state has rolled out endpoint protection to over 30,000 devices across cities and counties, and tens of thousands inside the state executive branch. More than 30,000 people have been trained on cybersecurity.
And during the last year, staffers have blocked more than a dozen major cybersecurity attacks against cities, counties and critical state infrastructure. By rolling out tools to cities and counties, state cybersecurity officials can step in to help with an understanding of the equipment and contacts they might need to use. Still, the challenges are evolving, he said: “We now have to level up, going forward, and continue the fight.”
Several factors contribute to increased risk, including global geopolitics and the rise of AI tools, Fuller said, indicating that as bad actors get better at using tools like agentic AI for cyber crime, state governments are going to have to improve at using AI to identify and prevent attacks.
Cybersecurity is not the only place the state is using AI; a survey revealed estimated productivity gains just under about 50,000 hours per month across the employee base, Fuller said. Agency leaders continue to find new use cases for how this technology can support government work. As agentic AI comes into the picture, Fuller said he is “very bullish.”
Looking ahead to 2026, Utah is “on the cusp” of rolling out its updated citizen portal, dubbed MyUtah, to the public, Fuller said. It’s slated to launch in the year’s first quarter.
“Ultimately, I think it’s going to be a game changer in the way we do business as a state,” he said, emphasizing that he expects it will help save millions of hours of time for Utahns in their interactions with state government.
