Nevada CIO preparing ‘significant moves’ for state’s IT governance

Nevada Chief Information Officer Timothy Galluzi told StateScoop in a recent video interview that a new state committee is preparing to make some “significant moves” on IT governance.

Nevada’s technology governance committee, which is tasked with helping to create statewide IT policies, consists of representatives from executive branch agencies, some of which don’t have backgrounds in IT, Galluzi said. 

“It really just demonstrates that there is a desire across the executive branch in Nevada to really work together,” Galluzi said this month at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers midyear conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

Galluzi said he’s noticed that committee members have a particular interest in implementing emerging technologies, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. He said he’s already identified some opportunities for AI to be used in the state’s unemployment office in order to more quickly process claims appeals.

“The department’s able to make those decisions faster with the use of these AI tools,” Galluzi said. “So we’re excited for that. We’re also excited for the opportunity to roll this out in the form of chatbots and whatnot to allow Nevadans to have easy, reliable access to information from the state.”

In the next six months, Galluzi said he hopes the state establishes a “more refined” AI policy.

The state recently hired its first ever chief data officer and Galluzi said he hopes that by this fall to have made progress establishing a data governance group. 

“I think that Nevada is in a really good place right now as far as technology goes and we’re going to continue to build that foundation,” he said.