automation

Why agencies should care about no-code workflow automation

COMMENTARY | When government staff can quickly create their own digital applications, they can improve customer experience and meet operational needs.

  • By Pankaj Taneja

How agency employees can help improve user experience

COMMENTARY | By leveraging nontechnical staff for automated testing, agencies can improve user experience and help residents gain the greatest benefit from digital government services.

  • By Ben Baldi

In-house tools sped up tax refunds in this county

The Travis County, Texas, Auditor’s Office has reduced the time it takes to process property tax audits by 91%.

  • By Stephanie Kanowitz

State expands streamlined, automated licensing

Wisconsin’s successful migration of its occupational licensing system to the cloud now includes business licenses.

  • By Chris Teale

How will AI affect workers? Tech waves of the past show how unpredictable the path can be

COMMENTARY | New digital technologies have been a constant for workers over the past few decades, with a mixed record on the economy and individuals’ daily lives. AI’s effect will likely be just as unpredictable.

  • By Bhaskar Chakravorti, The Conversation

AI could shore up democracy—Here’s one way

COMMENTARY | Public comment could soon swamp government officials and representatives, thanks to AI, but AI could also help spot compelling stories from constituents.

  • By Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders , The Conversation

Automation Risks Creating a Two-Tier Workforce of Haves and Have-Nots

COMMENTARY | As workplaces welcome more automated processes, staff members must adapt to modern skills to thrive in a tech-centric environment.

  • By Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, The Conversation

How Agencies Can Automate Data Extraction at Scale

COMMENTARY | Data is embedded in formats that are hard to search and process. Think emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, images, driver’s licenses. Here's how to extract that data and improve efficiency, reduce backlogs and solve operational challenges.

  • By Matt Macnak

Officials Say They've Fixed a 'Sorting' Breakdown in Virginia Booze Raffle

The error allowed some entrants to win multiple bottles of rare bourbon despite steep odds. Authorities say they’ve worked to limit the future possibility of human error and Excel mistakes.

  • By Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury

State turns to the cloud to manage transportation projects

The Delaware Department of Transportation will track $3 billion in spending over the next five years with a cloud-based capital program management solution.

  • By Chris Teale

County’s integrated platform delivers client-focused social services

With HSD Dynamics, Maricopa County can easily share data with APIs, track metrics and automate manual tasks to ensure residents get the services they need.

  • By Stephanie Kanowitz

Housing authority looks to AI for voucher processing

Columbus wants to use an artificial intelligence-based solution to off-load routine tasks from staff and accelerate Housing Choice Voucher processing.

  • By Susan Miller
Featured eBooks
Road and Transit Infrastructure Trends
Federal Recovery Funds at the State and Local Level
Infrastructure at a Turning Point

Align agencies, residents to boost customer experience

Online portals can streamline services delivery and even support related applications, but agencies must build trust with staff and residents as they roll out automated services that collect personal information, agency experts say.

  • By Chris Teale

Agencies opting for bots see more efficiency—and resistance

With enterprise automation saving thousands of work hours, IT leaders are looking for ways to introduce the technology to government offices.

  • By Chris Teale

ChatGPT for state and local agencies? Not so fast.

Tasks that can benefit from automation such as software development, traffic management or rote tasks are good candidates for ChatGPT, but those that need more subjectivity still require human intervention, experts say.

  • By Stephanie Kanowitz

How chat comments can supercharge safety net programs

With help from Code for America, New Mexico is analyzing its chat session data to uncover ways to improve customer experience through automation or a more personal touch.

  • By Stephanie Kanowitz

Tech layoffs have opened the door for IT talent. Now governments must close the deal.

COMMENTARY | Human capital management solutions can improve candidate experience and help agencies streamline the hiring and onboarding processes.

  • By Stefan El-Loubani

Look for fraudsters to apply COVID-era tricks to new programs

The pandemic laid bare state and local governments’ vulnerability to fraud, and agencies must lean into data-sharing technology to keep up defenses, an expert advises.

  • By Kaitlyn Levinson

Building scalable, cost-effective application security

COMMENTARY | Automated scanning and remediation platforms can identify, fix and prevent security gaps and vulnerabilities at the software application and development levels.

  • By Mark Townsend

A survey of over 17,000 people indicates only half of us are willing to trust AI at work

Employees are more comfortable with artificial intelligence for task automation compared with monitoring, performance management and human resources purposes, the survey finds.

  • By Nicole Gillespie, Caitlin Curtis, Javad Pool and Steven Lockey, The Conversation

Understanding why government automation projects fail

COMMENTARY | A deep, data-driven analysis of workflows will give agencies a true, accurate and unbiased picture of actual operations and show where automation can streamline processes.

  • By Brian Hettinger