Presented by Granicus in partnership with Carahsoft
Artificial intelligence’s long-term value in government depends on the foundations that allow agencies to use it responsibly and repeatedly. Those foundations include accessible data, consistent governance, technical standards and employees who understand how new capabilities can help them serve residents. In Illinois, building those connections is central to the state’s next phase of AI adoption.
For Ragle, that means building an ongoing organizational capability around AI, with coordinated leadership and a clear focus on public-service outcomes.
Illinois has devoted significant attention to establishing AI controls and governance. Ragle says the next step is expanding the operation that supports those responsibilities.
Early efforts can depend on a small team or duties assigned alongside someone’s existing role. As the work develops, it requires dedicated staffing, established procedures and the capacity to support adoption across agencies. At the time of the interview, Ragle said Illinois was preparing to have a fully dedicated chief AI officer.
His expectations for that role include an efficient enterprise governance process and use cases that demonstrate value. The AI office must understand the services agencies provide and help identify where new capabilities can improve them.
That makes governance part of how Illinois evaluates, introduces and manages AI over time. The office’s success will depend on connecting those processes to useful applications across state government.
Illinois’s Strategy and Innovation unit brings AI, data and enterprise architecture leadership together under a deputy secretary. Ragle describes these responsibilities as closely connected, with each contributing a different part of the foundation.
Before applying AI, the state must understand whether information is properly classified, protected and organized for responsible use. Access also requires collaboration with the agencies that own the data. Where solving a problem involves information from multiple agencies, data-sharing agreements and legal review become part of the work.
Enterprise architecture adds technical consistency. Ragle wants the state to identify where a solution can be repeated, helping agencies avoid acquiring multiple tools with similar capabilities.
Together, those functions support a broader approach to AI readiness: establish the rules, understand the data and build solutions that can be used across government.
An employee who can find information more quickly or navigate a process more easily may be better equipped to help the next person seeking assistance. That connection makes employee experience a meaningful part of evaluating AI’s value.
Scale also matters. Illinois looks for opportunities with manageable costs and risks that can deliver substantial benefits across multiple agencies.
An enterprise perspective helps the state ask whether an investment addresses a recurring need. A capability that works for one agency may offer a starting point for another, extending the value of the original effort while supporting consistent implementation.
Ragle identifies workforce readiness as a central requirement for adoption.
“It's not about the technology, it's about the people and the adoption and change management.”
Even a capable tool can fall short if employees have not received training, do not understand its purpose or remain uncertain about how it will affect their work. Ragle argues that agencies need to identify the business problem, assess whether people are ready and plan for change management as they consider the technology.
Employees also help identify the right problems to solve. They see the friction involved in delivering services and understand where existing processes make their work harder.
Ragle encourages that curiosity within clear enterprise guardrails. Business teams contribute their understanding of operational needs, while technology teams contribute knowledge of available capabilities. Their collaboration helps connect experimentation to the state’s mission.
Illinois began with employee productivity, introducing a limited chatbot capability alongside training and guidance to help staff become familiar with AI.
Another focus is helping caseworkers locate relevant policies, procedures and statutes. Ragle describes applications involving the Department of Children and Family Services and Department of Human Services, where employees must navigate substantial amounts of information while handling cases with individual circumstances.
AI-assisted searches can help surface material relevant to a caseworker’s work, supporting faster access to guidance as the employee delivers services.
Illinois is also using AI to better understand legacy technology. Longstanding systems may have incomplete documentation, embedded business rules and capabilities that are difficult to reconstruct after employees leave.
Ragle describes efforts to use AI to document those systems and identify business rules within older code. That understanding can help prepare the state for potential modernization and reveal where existing systems perform similar functions.
Ragle draws a distinction between proving that something is feasible and operating it as a government service.
A pilot or proof of concept can help establish what a technology can do, whether it addresses a real problem and whether contracting, compliance and governance requirements can be satisfied. Moving into production requires the state to bring those findings together with security, data protection, training and change management.
Risk remains part of that evaluation. Ragle points to data leakage, exposure and inaccurate information, alongside the need to protect state systems from malicious uses of AI.
His broader message is that government AI requires sustained coordination. Illinois is building the leadership, shared foundations and employee readiness needed to turn useful capabilities into dependable support for public service.
This interview is part of The Future Public Servant, a State Gov Today series presented by Granicus in partnership with Carahsoft. The program explores how public-sector leaders are preparing their organizations and workforces for a future shaped by artificial intelligence, changing citizen expectations and new models of digital service delivery. Individual interviews will be featured on TheFuturePublicServant.com and brought together in special episodes of State Gov Today.