NASCIO and EY Study Highlights Need for Emerging Technology Governance

LEXINGTON, Ky., Thursday, October 15 — Today the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and Ernst & Young LLP (EY) released How Will the Power of Emerging Technology Help Reframe Your Future? The publication focuses on emerging technology governance, and includes survey data and quotes collected from state chief information officers (CIOs) and addresses challenges that states face when integrating emerging technology into their information technology infrastructure and digital transformation efforts.

Data collected in the survey shows that:

• State CIOs ranked citizen-facing digital services as the area where emerging technology will make the most measurable impact in states.
• Budget was identified as the top challenge or barrier to adoption of emerging technologies.
• State CIOs are somewhat confident in engaging emerging-technology projects and managing risk.
• Nearly half of states have an effective governance model in place or were developing one, and the other half of states do not have a mechanism for monitoring the review, adoption and deployment of emerging technologies.
• Nearly two-thirds of states do not have policies or procedures in place regarding the use of emerging technology within their organizations.

“This publication clearly demonstrates that there is a desire and sound business cases for the use of emerging technology,” said Denis Goulet, NASCIO President and Commissioner and CIO for the State of New Hampshire. “As COVID-19 has demonstrated, states are using these technologies to aid in delivering services to citizens during the pandemic and beyond.”

Chris Estes, US State & Local Technology Leader with Ernst & Young LLP and former CIO for the State of North Carolina, said, “The definitions and parameters surrounding emerging technology have changed so much in a few short years. Understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to governance and adoption, emerging technologies have the potential to continue to be very beneficial to the operations of state government.”

Finally, the publication includes several recommendations for state CIOs on adopting emerging technology, including making it a part of the state’s enterprise architecture, intelligent design, funding, acquisition and governance.

The full publication can be found on NASCIO’s website, www.NASCIO.org/resource-center.