Artificial Intelligence

State and Local Pathways to Building and Buying Public AI

Led by: John Bailey & Santiago Garces

Across the United States, states and cities are pioneering practical ways to design, build, and procure AI in ways that preserve public control and flexibility. This session showcases concrete examples of how governments are creating modular, model-agnostic tools; sharing infrastructure; and using procurement to embed public values into technology. Participants will hear how state and local teams are structuring RFPs, evaluating vendors, and orchestrating cloud services to keep data, interfaces, and architecture under public control.

Learn from real-world state and local examples of building and buying AI systems that remain flexible, modular, and model-agnostic.
Understand practical strategies for structuring RFPs, contracts, and pilots to avoid lock-in and preserve future choices.
Identify ways to align procurement, IT, and program teams around shared goals for public AI.
Take away actionable ideas and patterns that can be adapted to participants’ own organizations.