Arizona Takes ‘First-in-Nation’ Approach to Data Readiness

Why It Matters

Robust data governance is essential for AI success; Arizona’s framework gives the state a competitive edge and a replicable model for other jurisdictions.

Key Takeaways

• Arizona adopts first‑in‑nation data readiness framework for AI.
• Uses DAM model to assess agency data capability maturity.
• Program identifies gaps, resource needs, and hidden business cases.
• Enables measurable, enterprise‑wide data dimensions across state government.
• Focus on data governance aims to accelerate AI pilot success.

Summary

Arizona is pioneering a statewide data readiness initiative, the first of its kind in the United States, to lay the groundwork for artificial‑intelligence projects.

The state has adopted the Data Management (DAM) framework, which lets each agency benchmark its data capabilities, assess maturity, and map gaps in governance, staffing, and budgeting.

As the speaker emphasized, “If you don’t have data, you can’t do AI,” and the new program will quantify data dimensions across the entire enterprise, surfacing hidden business cases and resource shortfalls.

By bringing transparency to data maturity, Arizona hopes to accelerate AI pilots, improve public‑sector efficiency, and set a template other states may follow.

Original Description

Chief Data and Analytics Officer Josh Wagner outlines the framework the state is using to assess the quality and maturity of data across Arizona agencies.

Arizona is taking a structured, deliberate approach to data, and Chief Data and Analytics Officer Josh Wagner said that means a complete assessment of what data agencies have, what can be done with the data, and the maturity of those abilities. To do that, Arizona is working from the DCAM framework, or Data Management Capability Assessment Model, using it to assess not just what data agencies have, but what can be done with it.

“It’s not checking a box,” Wagner said last week at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers Midyear Conference in Philadelphia. “It’s saying, ‘Are we ready for what’s coming at us?’”

Wagner said Arizona is the first state taking this approach to cataloging and assessing data, and with more than 30,000 employees across 200 divisions, it’s no small task. Currently, agencies are in the process of documenting where they are with data maturity, and Wagner's team plans to eventually release an app that agencies can use to assess and measure their data readiness.

This is all in keeping with Wagner’s previous position as director of the Arizona Government Transformation Office (GTO), focused on improving state government and “empowering employees to solve problems.” He said that work relates directly to the chief data and analytics role, because any aspect of data — like policy or quality — can be improved.

“The biggest thing that I’ve taken from the time in GTO is the ability to focus on a management cycle that allows our work to get better as we progress,” he said.

Video Transcript:

So I think one of the great equalizers about AI is everybody needs data to make it work, and they need data that is useful to make it work. So one of the biggest benefits I've seen to the resurgence of the AI conversations is the focus on the underlying data.

If you don't have data, you can't do AI, and I've seen across the nation many, many states that are refocusing on the underlying data governance programs so that they can be successful for the AI pilots they're taking on. So we, we are taking a first-in-the-nation approach in Arizona, and we are aligning to a data management framework called DCAM that allows agencies to understand the capabilities that they have and the maturity of those capabilities around all of the aspects of data.

What this is going to allow us to do is actually measure our data dimensions across the entire enterprise and help us understand where we have gaps, where we need resources to support, where there's budget issues, where we have business cases for data that we might not have known about in the past.

So the data program as a whole is a new framework that we're introducing, and the primary purpose is to bring visibility to the maturity of the data environments around the state.