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Government leaders rely on expert analyses from academia to help them understand their impact on the citizens and nations they serve. Scholars advance the profession through their writings and dialogues. Students benefit by learning about the influences on and the outcomes of public sector action in a way that helps build a future workforce. Understanding how public administration has evolved in the past can help all stakeholders to address challenges and capitalize on opportunities that matter for all stakeholders in this diverse profession.

Human beings have been interested in intelligent automation as far back as ancient times, when Greeks believed an automated man made of bronze circled Crete several times a day to protect Europa, the mother of the island’s King Minos, from pirates and invaders. This myth from more than 2,000 years ago perhaps prophesized the vision people have today of relinquishing routine tasks to machines, so people can take on assignments that require creative thinking and high-level reasoning.

The author takes this real-world experience to set forth a framework for agencies to plan, develop, and deploy AI systems. He then puts forward a set of challenges for government leaders and innovators in this space, along with opportunities for agencies to act in addressing these challenges. Finally, Desouza outlines a maturity model for agencies to use in guiding their journey forward in applying AI to improve mission performance.

The British government successfully pioneered the use of a national, semi-independent “surge team” to tackle large-scale technology-driven challenges facing it. The U.S. federal government adapted this approach to improve the success of its own operations in 2014, titling its top-level team as the “U.S. Digital Service.”  It then created a small internal software development and service organization, dubbed “18F,” to support both USDS and individual agencies.  And individual agencies are creating their own internal digital service teams, as well.