Featured September 18, 2024 AI Federal Leadership Program helps federal executives lead change and develop innovative solutions Back to Blog Partnership program helps federal leaders at all levels of government advance AI expertise Date May 20, 2025 Authors Rachel Bixby Tags Innovation and Technology, Leadership and Collaboration For the past six years, the Partnership for Public Service has convened federal leaders to identify opportunities and challenges around artificial intelligence. From bringing AI to the attention of their agencies, to navigating early stages of AI-specific governance and processes, to implementing broad-scale AI usage, participants of the AI Government Leadership Program left their experience with a better understanding of this technology and how to responsibly implement it. Today, the program looks to build on this impact as it expands to state and local government. Upskilling government senior executives in AI literacy since 2019 The AI Government Leadership Program has enabled hundreds of AI-focused projects over its 11 cycles and across the more than 600 leaders it has trained. These projects range from setting up government agencies to better evaluate AI opportunities—like training staff on the technology and setting up working groups within and between agencies—to putting steps in place for responsible adoption—like evaluating and updating oversight processes and procurement considerations. Other initiatives focused on identifying and implementing value-add usages of generative AI—from improving customer service via chatbots to identifying fraudulent drug claims across the internet. Former participants agree this program made them better leaders One alumna of this program, Chazara Clark-Smith, AI strategy and governance lead in the IRS’ Chief Technology Office, used what she learned in the program to improve her agency’s AI governance and organization. “[As a result of this program], I have authored published policies for ensuring an integrated agency-wide process for governing AI, created an AI Community of Interest and Advisory Council within the IT organization to facilitate AI literacy and industry awareness, and identified opportunities to leverage existing systems and reporting structures to monitor and maintain AI use cases,” she said. An average of 90% of program graduates believe our AI program made them a better leader. The program enables success not only by providing executive coaching, informative guest speakers and access to subject matter expertise, but also by connecting leaders with one another, breaking down silos and having them work together on solutions across their teams and agencies. “The AI Government Leadership Program provided a network of professionals across government tackling the same challenges with developing strategy for and implementing AI use cases toward real value creation and efficiency gains,” Clark-Smith said. State and local government executives can now participate in the AI Government Leadership program To further the Partnership’s goal of developing public service leaders, and convening those who tackle similar challenges, the AI Government Leadership Program now includes government leaders from states and localities. In its current iteration, it brings together over 60 leaders across 25 states. Each participant will bring a unique perspective as they tackle similar challenges and work toward similar goals. Like the public service leaders who came before them, they will leave the program better able to use AI to serve the public good. Learn more about the impact of our AI Government Leadership Program. Rachel Bixby works within the Public Service Leadership Institute, specifically on the strategy team and the AI Federal Leadership Program.
