Session Highlight: The Public Sector AI Governance Playbook

Governments are on the front lines of AI adoption, facing the immense challenge of balancing innovation, public trust, and regulatory responsibility. Every new system deployed in the public sector must be designed not only for performance, but for accountability. At GovAI Summit, the session The Public Sector AI Governance Playbook: Avoiding Risk as You Scale Adoption brings together three experts who understand these challenges from different angles: Dan Clarke, President of the first AI governance platform company; Michael Ratcliffe, a retired 34-year veteran of the U.S. Census Bureau and current advisor; and Bianca Lochner, Chief Information Officer of the City of Scottsdale.

Together, they unpack what it really means to scale AI responsibly in government environments where scrutiny is high and mistakes carry real consequences. As public institutions race to modernize, they face a constant tension between moving fast enough to innovate and slow enough to maintain compliance, privacy, and fairness. This session explores how leaders are navigating that balance, drawing on practical lessons from real-world deployment of AI systems in civic contexts.

The conversation begins with a crucial question: how do agencies move from strategy to implementation? Many government organizations have written ambitious AI roadmaps, but few have managed to bring those ideas into production. Clarke, Ratcliffe, and Lochner discuss how agencies are overcoming the barriers between theory and execution by aligning legal, technical, and executive leadership to ensure that AI initiatives don’t stall in pilot mode. They also confront the realities of public trust, explaining how transparency and communication can mitigate risk when algorithms impact citizens’ lives directly.

As the panel notes, the risk environment for public sector AI is shifting rapidly. Governments must manage privacy obligations, bias concerns, and questions of legal exposure, all while responding to an evolving web of legislation and regulation. From the AI Bill of Rights to state-level accountability frameworks, policy is moving faster than ever, and agencies are adapting on the fly. This evolution echoes themes explored in Trust and Transparency in Government AI Systems, which emphasizes that effective governance isn’t a barrier to innovation; it’s what makes innovation sustainable.

Another key issue raised in the discussion is how to scale AI governance across multiple agencies. What works for a city like Scottsdale might not fit the needs of a federal department. Yet the principles are consistent: governance must be embedded from the start, and it must be shared. The speakers highlight how collaboration between legal, policy, and IT teams can prevent fragmentation and ensure consistent oversight. As discussed in Innovation in Practice: What Agencies Are Trying, this kind of cross-agency cooperation is often what separates successful AI rollouts from failed ones.

Ultimately, The Public Sector AI Governance Playbook is more than a session about policy; rather, it’s a roadmap for practical action. It invites leaders to think beyond compliance and see governance as an enabler of responsible progress. As agencies begin to put AI systems into production, the cost of ignoring these principles is growing. Without thoughtful governance, even well-intentioned projects can expose institutions to bias, data misuse, or loss of public confidence.

The future of AI in government will depend on leaders who can turn ethical frameworks into operational practice. If you’re part of that transformation, this session and the broader GovAI Summit offer the playbook you need.

Learn from peers and policy experts defining the next chapter of artificial intelligence for the public sector, AI policy, and government AI governance and see the full agenda here.