InnovateUS releases results of listening series on federal and state AI training needs

Feedback will inform free “Responsible AI for Public Professionals” to be available in summer 2024  

InnovateUS has concluded a multi-month engagement process with 100+ AI leaders to gather input on the development of a new philanthropically-funded, national online training program on responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) for public sector workers. 

Government leaders and AI experts universally agreed that training on the responsible use of AI to better serve residents is important and urgent and should be widely available, providing a clear framework of AI terms, use cases, and organizational considerations, with hands-on exercises connected to the learner’s day-to-day work. 

These results are informing the development of InnovateUS’s new free, scalable, and asynchronous online course — Responsible AI for Public Professionals — anticipated to be available by early summer 2024.

 “Our in-depth conversations with government leaders, AI experts, and public sector workers have made it clear that hands-on training on how to responsibly use AI is urgently needed for federal and state workers,” said Beth Simone Noveck, Director of the GovLab and the Burnes Center for Social Change, which houses InnovateUS. “This feedback is shaping our upcoming free and asynchronous Responsible AI for Public Professionals course so that it meets the most critical needs of our government workers, and prepares them for the evolution of our workforce in response to the rapidly increasing availability of AI tools.”  

Series of Planning Convenings

Between December 2023 - January 2024, InnovateUS hosted a series of workshops alongside its partners to seek broad input into the development of a new curriculum to support public professionals in understanding and using AI (including Generative AI). 

The first convening was hosted on December 4 with representatives of 11 state governments (hosted by InnovateUS and Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University), the second on January 11 with representatives from 19 federal departments, agencies, and offices (hosted by InnovateUS and the Partnership for Public Service), and the third on January 30, with participation from a cross-sector group of experts from 16 industry, academic, and civic technology organizations. We also sought input from our InnovateUS State Partners, as well as from the State Chief Data Officers Network and the Chief Digital Service Officer Network, both part of the Digital Service Network organized by the Beeck Center. 

At InnovateUS, the sessions were led by Cristin Dorgelo, who served from January 2021 to January 2023 as the Senior Advisor for Management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the Executive Office of the President and is a currently a Visiting Fellow with InnovateUS and the Burnes Center for Social Change; and Blake Valenta, who was previously the Deputy Director of Data Programs and Policy at the Office of Data and Innovation for the State of California, and  is a Senior Fellow with InnovateUS and the Burnes Center for Social Change. 

What We Learned

Roles and Functions to Prioritize for AI Training

There is a need to design baseline AI training for a general audience of public professionals and for AI decision makers. These core audiences include:

• AI DECISION MAKERS who are already or will soon be involved in policy development, program integration plans, and decisions related to whether to build AI capacity or buy AI services and tools; 

• A GENERAL AUDIENCE OF PUBLIC PROFESSIONALS, including frontline staff who deliver services, engage with the public, work with data, and perform core day-to-day agency business activities also urgently need to learn about AI.

In addition, we heard encouragement to consider future specialized trainings for:

• Procurement and acquisition professionals who will design solicitations and review proposals from vendors and providers of AI tools and services

• Technical and information technology (IT) staff at all levels

• Roles that are focused on the production, management, and use of data, including statistical offices, privacy officials, and custodians of records.

• Customer service and digital transformation teams

• Human resources professionals and hiring managers charged with building AI-ready teams

• Legal professionals engaged in evaluating AI risks and risk mitigation (planning for an AI course for government legal teams is in the works here at InnovateUS, and we anticipate having the program online by September 2024)

Looking outside of federal and state executive branches, we also heard the importance of ensuring training on the responsible use of AI is available to local government workforces and to legislators, mayors, city and county councils, and other elected officials. 

Key Learning Concepts to Promote Responsible Use of AI 

Demand for hands-on training that provides a framework of basic terms and definitions of both generative and traditional AI, as well as a typology of AI use cases relevant to government work and exercises that advance understanding of the roles of leaders and staff and the importance of data quality, prompt engineering, assessment, and evaluation in ensuring responsible AI use. Specific concepts prioritized for inclusion in training were: 

• FRAMEWORK OF BASIC TERMS AND DEFINITIONS: The need for a basic overview of types of AI with a plain language explanation of how these tools work and how they are trained, as well as definitions and terminology that can support shared language and understanding within and across agencies;

• TYPOLOGY OF USE CASES AND HANDS-ON EXERCISES: Enthusiasm for hands-on exercises that help learners identify and explore the relevance of generative AI to their day-to-day workflows–informed by a simple typology of generative AI use cases as well as real-world examples of AI applications in the public sector;

• FOCUS ON DATA: Encouragement to infuse course modules with information about the role of data management, quality, and processing in improving outcomes of AI applications, including considerations of privacy, security, and safety;

• ACCOUNTABILITY FOR DESIGNING RESPONSIBLE AI APPLICATIONS AND MITIGATING RISK: The importance of assessing risks and risk mitigation strategies during training, including how to avoid or mitigate unintended consequences and legal risk; identify potential bad actors/applications; protect civil rights; mitigate bias; and infuse values and ethics into AI application development, training of AI models, and prompt engineering; 

• CHANGE MANAGEMENT: Connections between AI training and broader executive-level efforts on AI change management and organizational readiness, such as how agencies can build AI-ready teams; and

• BOTH GENERATIVE AND TRADITIONAL AI: The need for other advanced training content for AI decision makers and leaders on use cases for traditional AI/machine learning, assessment of AI solutions, evaluation of AI implementation, and effective practices related to governance and accountability.

Effective Formats for AI Learning

In response to how this training should be delivered and which formats would be most helpful to learners, we heard enthusiasm for a modular, learn-at-your-own-pace asynchronous online course, and for hands-on exercises that give learners an opportunity to try one or more of the main Generative AI tools freely available online. 

Participants encouraged us to help ensure that learners use data in those hands-on exercises that are either already in the public domain or synthetic sample data, and that learners are able to complete the exercises within their agency’s IT environment or on their personal devices. Participants also expressed interest in including quizzes or other forms of integrated assessments so that learners can test their progress as they go. 

Access to Learning Opportunities

In response to how state and federal government agencies might best access training for their workforces and whether there were any considerations for how to encourage uptake across public-sector workforces, we heard interest in having access to a single free or low-cost foundational course available to and common to all staff as a baseline. In addition, we heard interest in: 

• ABILITY TO SUPPLEMENT WITH CUSTOM CONTENT: flexibility to add custom modules or more advanced content as needed based on policy or role/function;

• UNION SUPPORT WOULD BE USEFUL TO UPTAKE: Observations that support from employee unions, management associations, and other labor groups and associations for training could encourage uptake of training within workforces; 

• INFORMATION FOR MANAGERS AND EXECUTIVES: Suggestions to provide information for managers and executives on the role, goals, and expected outcomes of the training course, and to connect course modules with AI skills competency frameworks developed by agencies/administrations; 

• PLAN FOR AS-NEEDED CONTENT UPDATES: Encouragement to plan for potentially frequent as-needed updates to course modules as technology capabilities evolve; and 

• ACCESS TO COURSE COMPLETION DATA: Interest in being able to receive data about employees’ course completion, and possibly linking course completion to certification, badges, or employee performance plans.

What’s Next

Curriculum development is underway based on the feedback and input gathered throughout this process.  This includes planning interactive learning modules for general audiences and for AI decision makers and business leaders.

Looking to get started now with AI programming? Ahead of our course launch, InnovateUS is offering various live learning workshops on AI. Check out InnovateUS's free AI resources here! In addition, the Partnership for Public Service offers a no-cost AI Federal Leadership Program.

About InnovateUS

InnovateUS is a nonprofit, non-partisan multi-state initiative to upskill the public sector workforce in digital, data, and community engagement skills. All our programming is free and designed to upskill public professionals to use technology responsibly to serve the public, meet missions and solve problems.

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