U.S. Digital Response’s roadmap for better government digital services

Keith Wilson, a talent engagement manager at the U.S. Digital Response, discusses the organization’s new Digital Service Toolkit and the evolution of digital service teams in state and local government. He highlights the challenges governments face in building the internal structures and talent needed to deliver effective digital services, as well as the role artificial intelligence could play in improving those efforts. Wilson emphasizes that AI should augment government teams and help employees deliver better services, rather than replace the people doing the work.

Top stories this week:

NASCIO has announced the finalists for its 2026 State IT Recognition Awards, highlighting technology projects from states across the country. The finalists included projects ranging from artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to digital services, data modernization and improving how states deliver services to residents. The winners will be announced at NASCIO’s annual conference at the end of September, but the list offers a snapshot of some of the state technology projects getting the most attention this year.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has finally clarified how states can use some of the roughly $21 billion left over from the federal BEAD broadband program. Under the new guidance, states can conduct another round of funding to connect locations that were missed in the initial process or have become newly eligible because of changes to federal broadband maps, provider defaults or other factors. But the guidance leaves one major question unanswered: how states will be able to use the remaining funds for non-deployment purposes like cybersecurity, digital literacy and workforce development.

A new report from the American Statistical Association is calling for a major overhaul of the federal government’s education data infrastructure, with states playing a central role. The report recommends rebuilding the National Center for Education Statistics as a more modern, data-focused partner to states, with an emphasis on stronger data governance, interoperability and technical capacity. The push comes after NCES was dramatically downsized last year, and experts say restoring the agency’s ability to connect and standardize data across states will be critical to making that information more useful for policymakers, schools and families.

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