Initially printed by Authorities Expertise Insider, Jenna Sindle.
From Networks to Neighborhoods: Why Infrastructure is the Cornerstone of State AI Initiatives
State governments throughout america are betting massive on AI to drive innovation, financial improvement and alternatives for residents and construct communities which are resilient, affluent and future-ready. Whereas there’s a substantial amount of enthusiasm round AI to ship unprecedented change at an unprecedented tempo, it takes greater than use instances, a strong information governance framework and an information middle to ship the imaginative and prescient.
One of the vital essential components of the AI revolution—the community infrastructure—is out of sight and infrequently out of thoughts for state authorities officers charged with mission success. In a lot the identical means that the facility and water assets wanted to assist the info facilities are important, making certain that states have an AI-ready community infrastructure is crucial. With no quick, safe and fail-safe community that’s able to deal with the quantity of information wanted to gas AI, staff and residents are left annoyed, companies can’t innovate, and financial improvement alternatives slip away. Let’s take a better have a look at two states which are AI leaders and the way they’ve laid the foundations for fulfillment for his or her residents.
Texas: A Hub of AI Innovation
The previous saying that all the things is larger in Texas actually takes on new which means on the subject of AI. Open AI’s choice to construct a large information middle advanced in Abilene, TX as a part of its $500 billion Stargate initiative has put the state on the map on the subject of AI. From Texas A&M College’s participation in an elite analysis consortium to non-public sector corporations and state authorities businesses, you possibly can say that Texas oil fever has been changed by Texas AI fever.
One state authorities company that has embraced AI is the Texas Division of Transportation (TxDOT). Underneath the route of CIO Anh Selissen, TxDOT has developed a three-year strategic plan to implement AI. In a current dialog with The Eno Middle for Transportation, Selissen defined that AI “can basically revolutionize what we’re doing and create that transformation within the transportation trade.”
In 2024 firstly of their strategic planning course of, TxDOT constructed out an inventory of 230 AI use instances that will basically change the way in which the company capabilities, improve the worth it brings to Texans and enhance workforce experiences. From the checklist of 230 use instances, the company’s IT group chosen 22 to be rolled out through the 2025-2027 Strategic Plan interval. These use instances embody workforce coaching to optimize using Microsoft’s Co-Pilot to streamline work, utilizing AI to research information to establish and remediate site visitors collision sizzling spots throughout the state, and the deployment of chatbots to help each staff and residents to find data and resolving queries shortly.
Whereas TxDOT’s framework for profitable AI deployment and adoption accommodates acquainted components—like information governance, information accuracy, ethics and accountability—on the prime of Selissen’s framework is infrastructure optimization. “One of many issues we actually don’t discuss with AI is [if] we now have the capability to deal with the quantity of information. Mainly [do we have] the bandwidth obtainable that the AI instrument consumes,” she famous. “We’ve introduced everyone up from broadband to a degree that we are able to really function strong instruments like AI in an efficient method, so we don’t have to attend hours or days however simply minutes [for the results].”
Georgia: AI is the Financial Improvement Engine
For the State of Georgia, AI helps drive financial development and improvement throughout the state—not simply in Atlanta. Josh Finke, Senior Vice President of Public Sector at Lumen, and Pete Bley, Director of Broadband and Tribal Enterprise Improvement at Ciena, had a dialog with Richard Hicks, CEO of Inspiredu, the place they mentioned the various methods wherein an AI-ready infrastructure is driving financial improvement in Georgia.
“The Governor of Georgia [Brian Kemp] is all in on AI due to the financial alternatives it brings to Georgia, equivalent to Hyundai’s choice to construct its new manufacturing unit close to Savannah, GA,” Hicks shared. This new plant—Hyundai’s first all-electric car manufacturing plant in america—is a highly-connected, automated and versatile manufacturing system the place all processes of manufacturing—order assortment, procurement, logistics and manufacturing—are optimized using AI and information.”
Not solely does the plant want the AI-ready community infrastructure to maneuver, analyze and apply information to drive manufacturing processes at velocity and scale, however there’s a brand new demand for AI-ready staff. “90 p.c of jobs immediately want digital abilities,” defined Hicks. “Guaranteeing broadband connectivity is essential for communities to entry AI instruments and abilities, that are important for collaborating within the AI economic system.” To that finish, and in assist of the Governor’s imaginative and prescient, the Georgia Expertise Authority is rolling out AI-ready high-speed broadband connectivity throughout the state so all Georgians have entry to the schooling and coaching alternatives they should be part of this financial improvement engine.
However for networks which are managing AI workloads for manufacturing vegetation, faculties, universities and authorities businesses utilizing generative AI to enhance citizen providers, the flexibility to maneuver information at velocity isn’t the one issue that defines an AI-ready community. “Connecting each nook of our neighborhood isn’t only a good to have; it’s actually a necessary,” Bley defined. To attach communities, Bley emphasised that state governments have to construct out the center mile infrastructure to get the community out of cities and into rural communities. “An AI-ready community is constructed to deal with excessive utilization and speedy capability development, but when it’s not supported by the precise structure, community gadgets can overheat and create efficiency points. An AI-ready infrastructure is streamlined and wishes much less cooling than a standard structure enabling information to maneuver extra shortly than ever.”
Conclusion
As state governments proceed to prioritize AI to assist instructional and financial improvement, enhance public security and citizen experiences—to not point out the myriad different potentialities we’ve but to establish—constructing the inspiration for fulfillment has by no means been extra essential. There are two distinct components of success on the subject of integrating AI into workflows or for producing new insights. On one aspect of the AI success equation there’s the info, ethics, governance and use instances and on the opposite is the precise community infrastructure to assist data-rich workloads at velocity and scale.
Whereas it’s undoubtedly extra thrilling to spin up use instances, investing in community upgrades earlier than deploying them is, ultimately, a better alternative. “The place we discover probably the most success is when public sector establishments, together with state governments in any respect ranges, can accomplice not solely with the federal authorities, however as well as, with business entities to make sure that connectivity is on the market for all,” added Josh Finke. Not solely will an AI-ready community infrastructure assist ship success on immediately’s use instances, however it’ll allow, by the efficiencies achieved by profitable deployment, extra investments in AI and the enlargement of use instances. That sounds prefer it’s value taking a giant guess on. Occupied with listening to from authorities IT leaders as they put together their organizations, group and constituencies for the AI period? We’re sharing their tales every week on The CIO Connection.
Discover insights on our Lumen Public Sector Options web page—together with our newest white paper, Constructing AI-Prepared Networks: A Public Sector information to Lumen® Non-public Connectivity Material℠—for a better have a look at the infrastructure, technique and innovation behind our Lumen PCF and the way it’s integral to infrastructure modernization.
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