Technology Trends for 2020

State

of the States state technology trends in 2020

THIS YEAR’S TECHNOLOGY TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES FROM NASCIO by Meredith Ward | Director of Policy and Research, National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)

With 25 state chief information officer (CIO) transitions, ransomware in the news and continued state assistance to resource-strapped local governments, 2019 was a big year for state information technology. In all likelihood, we will see more of the same, and a few other issues to watch, in 2020.

S T A T E A N D L O C A L C O L L A B O R A T I O N O N C Y B E R S E C U R I T Y

Many have called 2019 the year of ransomware, and PRIVACY it is expected that incidents will continue to arise in 2020. While the negative consequences of ransom Following the 2018 implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, states are considering similar privacy issues and legislation. ware incidents can be significant and wide-ranging, one ray of light is it that the threat may have increased The California Consumer Privacy Act was the first of its kind in the U.S. and became collaboration between state and local governments effective on Jan. 1, 2020. Since the introduction of California’s law, at least five other states — Illinois, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Washington and Virginia — have also introduced similar privacy legislation. on cybersecurity. As reported in the 2020 NGA/NASCIO publication "Stronger Together: State and Local Cyberse curity Collaboration", the dramatic uptick in ransomware attacks has prompted state leaders to implement programs The California law and the other pieces of legislation mostly apply to the private to strengthen local partnerships in cybersecurity. State sector’s use of citizen data and are not targeted at state government. However, governments are increasingly providing services to county state CIOs are still considering how expanded legislation could impact them and municipal governments, including endpoint protection, down the road. Another piece of evidence that supports the view that state shared service agreements for cyber defensive tools, incident CIOs are looking at privacy implications is the rise in the number of state chief response and statewide cybersecurity awareness and training. privacy officers (CPOs). In 2014, there were five CPOs; there are 13 in 2020. Not all report to the state CIO, but all touch some aspect of citizen data privacy. It is likely that the scope of services provided by states to local governments and collaboration between the two will only increase in 2020. The NGA/NASCIO publication provides recommendations for states on this topic:

A R T I F I C I A L INTELLIGENCE

State CIOs are faced with workforce shortages and limited budgets. One way that CIOs are combatting these challenges is through an increased interest in and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as chatbots and robotic process automation (RPA). In the 2019 State CIO Survey, state CIOs overwhelmingly predicted that AI and RPA will be the most impactful emerging technology in the next three to five years. The network of connected devices known as the Internet of Things (IoT) was ranked in second place while the other options — connected/autonomous vehicles, blockchain and quantum computing — each received a very small percentage of responses. This is a change from just two years prior when, in the 2017 CIO survey, CIOs predicted that IoT would be the most impactful emerging technology in the next three to five years.

The 2019 State CIO Survey offers additional evidence that there will be an increased interest in adopting AI/RPA this. When asked about plans to deploy automation software (for RPA or machine learning) in the next two to three years, half of CIOs said efforts were complete, in progress or planned. However, nearly 30 percent said they were unsure or had no plans to deploy this technology. At minimum, states should be building relationships with local governments.

States should raise awareness of existing services being offered to local governments.

States should be exploring cost savings that can be achieved through including local governments in service contracts.

Looking to the year ahead, CIOs will continue to play a crucial role in helping state and local governments navigate the changing information landscape.

ABOUT NASCIO

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) works to foster government excellence through leadership of quality business practices, information management and technology policy. This non-partisan organization works to promote the CIO as the technology leader who drives business innovation and transformation and promotes strategic alignment of government technology investments and state business agendas. Learn more at nascio.org.