Code for America’s 2026 Government AI Landscape Assessment: Evaluating State Readiness

Code for America released its second annual Government AI Landscape Assessment on May 1, 2026, detailing how U.S. States are integrating artificial intelligence into public services. The report indicates that while many states have progressed from initial readiness to piloting AI technology, the transition toward operationalizing these tools and measuring their long-term impact remains in the early stages.

The 2026 assessment utilizes an updated rubric to map state progress across four distinct stages of AI adoption: readiness, piloting, implementation, and impact. According to the nonprofit, readiness involves establishing foundations in leadership, capacity, and infrastructure, while piloting focuses on the use of AI innovation labs and sandboxes to experiment under specific guardrails.

Implementation is defined as embedding AI into daily operations, such as document automation and public-facing chat assistants. The final stage, impact, requires the full monitoring and measurement of AI systems to determine their effectiveness over time.

States Leading AI Adoption

The analysis identifies several states that are currently shaping the national trajectory of government AI through strong executive leadership, cross-agency governance, and structured pilot programs. These states include Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Vermont.

The report highlights specific applications of the technology within these states:

• Maryland collaborated with Anthropic to deploy an AI-powered agent designed to assist residents in navigating the benefits application process.
• New Jersey is expanding its NJ AI Assistant with tools to analyze resident feedback, validate documents, and increase public-facing content.
• North Carolina is utilizing its Government Data Analytics Center to implement generative AI for document summarization to assist government employees.
• Pennsylvania is scaling an AI tool that scans documents for legibility during benefit applications to reduce the administrative burden on caseworkers.
• Texas has released an AI governance framework and is focusing on improving data quality across state agencies as it moves from pilots to experimentation.
• Utah established a regulated pilot program using an AI chatbot to accelerate prescription renewals, intended to allow physicians to spend more time on patient care.
• Vermont has developed a public inventory of the AI tools currently utilized by its state agencies.

The 2026 report places a particular emphasis on how AI is being used to help eligible citizens find, apply for, and receive public benefits, building upon the organization’s previous 2025 assessment.

Across the country, states are not waiting on the sidelines of this technological shift. They are stepping forward with urgency and a deep commitment to getting it right. We are seeing several states move from AI readiness to piloting, and implementation.

Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America

Renteria stated that the goal for state governments is to ensure technology is human-centered and grounded in real outcomes for communities to define the future of public service.

Code for America compiled the findings by reviewing publicly available materials to evaluate the current state of AI integration across the U.S. Public sector.