Much of the discussion was about the psychological layer of adoption. Who has the authority to act? Will this suggest someone isn’t doing their job? The panel’s answer was framing: tell the story as improving outcomes for residents, never as replacing people or criticizing existing work.
Procurement got direct attention. Pilots work well as a try-before-you-buy mechanism. The problem is what comes after: most counties lack the agile procurement and governance policies to turn a successful pilot into full-scale deployment, and that is where public-sector AI projects most often die. Cross Country Collaboration and pilot-based procurement were offered as practical fixes.
The panel closed on foundations. Quality data and process have to come before AI is layered on top. The partnership model worth rewarding: vendors who help governments build those foundations, not vendors who simply extract data for their own models.
