The Utah Division of Technology Services has been under the leadership of CIO Alan Fuller since 2021; Fuller is also serving as secretary/treasurer for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.
Government Technology/David Kidd
In the past year, Fuller said, Utah has prioritized improvements to digital service delivery, resulting from a gubernatorial mission to streamline and modernize state government. The state has launched a new design system that supports the modernized appearance and experience of using state websites. Officials are in the process of creating a citizen portal, and Fuller said the minimum viable product is expected to go live this year.
One example of such a solution addresses recurrent call center questions about the cost of annual vehicle registration fees. Creation of a fee calculator tool has led to a significant decrease in the frequency of these questions, Fuller said. Another example is in the state’s work to improve the customer experience for family and friends of people who are incarcerated; they have provided feedback on the difficulty of getting information on how to interact with the system and communicate with those individuals. Now, the state Department of Corrections sends this information proactively, and satisfaction scores have since increased.
Utah is heavily focused on digital identity and verifiable credentials, the CIO said: “I think this is going to really revolutionize the way things are done online.”
Its efforts aim to address the goals of improving the customer experience and increasing security for digital government services. Significant work has already taken place, Fuller said, noting a completed pilot of verifiable digital credentials. Now, the state is working with its Legislature to implement funding streams and policy guardrails around digital identity — something Fuller said he envisions will “change society for the better.” He said for those born after the 1900s, it is an expectation from government — and perhaps overdue.
And on the employee side, Fuller underlined the implementation of a new compensation plan, the state’s embrace of a hybrid work model; and its implementation of a scaled agile framework methodology, bringing consistency to workflow planning. These changes, Fuller said, have led to a more positive culture: “We’ve really invested in our human capital, in our team.”
Gov. Spencer Cox emphasized the need to build in his 2025 State of the State address and, for IT, Fuller said that speaks to reducing technical debt by replacing outdated systems with modern ones.
The CIO said his team is focused largely on helping each state agency be more effective in its respective role, emphasizing the need to build solutions with business value. From a state modernization perspective, Fuller said this entails streamlining the portfolio of applications powering each agency.
One contributing factor increasing agencies’ efficiency is in artificial intelligence (AI) — an area in which Utah has been an early technology adopter, from the 2018 launch of its Center of Excellence in AI to the 2024 launch of the Office of AI Policy.
In a use case underway, Fuller said, the state’s tax organization is leveraging retrieval-augmented generation, using generative AI to find information. The state is exploring about a dozen such use cases with other agencies.
“We’re trying to give our employees superpowers,” Fuller said.
Essentially, this tool offers an AI-powered digital assistant to approximately 200 call center agents. The large language model is trained on a specific knowledge base made up of call scripts and supplemental training materials, to support call center employees with context-rich, accurate information. Fuller said the state intends to roll this AI assistant out for all call center agents in production in the coming months.
The CIO described himself as “pretty bullish” on AI technology, but noted that its emergence has led to new cybersecurity risks, from deepfake fraud to more effective phishing campaigns. Utah’s statewide cybersecurity program is very strong, Fuller said, and leverages federal and state funding. This program includes offering endpoint protection to individuals in cities and counties, and providing cybersecurity training — for more than 30,000 people so far. Cybersecurity, Fuller said, will remain an investment priority looking forward, to keep Utahns safe in the modern era.
