New York scales up AI tool, training resources to entire state government
After a successful pilot program last fall, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the state’s custom artificial intelligence tool and its accompanying training materials will be made available to the state government’s entire workforce of more than 100,000 employees.
The tool, which was tested last fall during a pilot with more than 1,200 participants across eight state agencies, is called AI Pro. Powered by Google Gemini, it was developed by the New York Office of Information Technology Services before Hochul announced the pilot in her 2025 State of the State address. Along with the training, which will be offered to state employees in partnership with InnovateUS, the tool was built to provide state employees with a secure environment to hone their AI skills, learn more about AI and unlock ideas about how the technology could help agencies solve problems facing New York.
“We are putting New York at the forefront of the AI revolution, ensuring that the journey forward is safe and responsible,” Hochul said in a news release. “I’m excited to fulfill our vision of embracing innovation, upskilling our employees and better serving New Yorkers.”
The state claims this expansion makes New York the largest state in the nation to securely provide such an AI tool to an entire state workforce. A two-part training program is designed to teach New York State employees, spread across 50 agencies, about responsible AI use as a public sector employee. Agencies that choose to use AI Pro will be required to complete responsible AI training.
A survey following the pilot’s conclusion revealed that 75% of participants saved time using AI Pro, and users found that using the tool often allowed them to spend more time focusing on more complex and high value tasks. About 90% reported feeling their understanding of AI improved following the pilot program, and 86% of users wanted to continue using AI Pro after the pilot.
Participants of the pilot came from a variety of roles and professional experience levels, and they outlined several cases where AI Pro helped their work: crafting executive summaries and policy briefs, translating complex topics into easily digestible language, summarizing large reports, consolidating duplicative documents and facilitating the creation of data dashboards, among other uses.
Forty-one percent of users entered the pilot program with no experience using generative AI, and 87% had received no prior training. But the survey showed confidence using generative AI rose by 36% following the pilot program.
“Governor Hochul has been a national leader without peer when it comes to leveraging technology to enhance productivity in government, improve service delivery and create efficiencies so state agencies can better serve the public,” Dru Rai, New York’s chief information officer and director of ITS, said in the release. “We are thankful to have incredible support for this groundbreaking initiative and know that responsible AI will bring us limitless possibilities to enact positive change, while giving our employees an opportunity to grow their own skills for the future.”
