During this year’s Smart Cities Connect Conference and Expo in Raleigh, NC, one topic garnered considerable attention: AI. Within many city governments, AI is past experimentation and has moved into production. In 2026, city IT leaders are prioritizing  safe, secure, and data-driven AI deployments that deliver measurable outcomes in mobility, public safety, infrastructure management, and climate resilience.

However, as cities move toward operational AI, challenges exist around data readiness, governance, and integration across departments.

In 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-12-23, directing state government institutions to utilize AI. These state entities are now beginning to move from the theoretical planning phase into the deployment phase with concrete plans.

The Golden Fleet, a US Navy initiative introduced by the administration in December of 2025, aims to revitalize the US shipbuilding industry, develop and sustain a new class of naval fleet and change how it does business to rapidly address maritime threats, particularly from China, in the Indo-Pacific region. The first frigate is planned for full operation in 2028.

If you’ve been part of the defense industrial base (DIB) or are looking to support the DoW, it should come as no surprise that AI is now seeing actionable impact in day-to-day operations. Strategically, AI is essential in warfighting decision-making, analyzing data and enhancing operational logistics. The Army in particular has started incorporating AI solutions across a number of elements outlined below, on the heels of several new strategy announcements and initiatives.

In early February, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle unveiled the details of the US Navy’s 2026 Hedge Strategy. As the Navy is facing a great power competition, rapid technological change and strain on the defense industrial base, it is critical to adapt an innovative operational and strategic approach to maintain adversarial advantage. The strategy shifts away from dominance by mass towards a risk-balanced operational approach that has asymmetric, combat-ready capability. In other words, they are “hedging their bets” on more tailored capabilities and nimble operations.

At WEST this year, Department of the Navy leaders signaled a clear shift in modernization priorities: the debate is no longer about adopting emerging technology or drafting strategy documents. Instead, we’re seeing operational speed, how quickly the Navy can field capability, integrate systems and make decisions, become the objective. Across sessions on shipbuilding, acquisition transformation, AI, Zero Trust and maritime force design, the recurring theme was speed matters most.

The 2026 FETC Conference took place in Orlando, Florida this year, where K-12 education leaders highlighted how budgets, technology trends, requirements and opportunities are intersecting and how alignment is key to success.

Aging infrastructure, outdated hardware and overall modernization needs have been a mission-critical challenge for the DoD. It’s not just about IT headaches; there are real obstacles to modernization for the Department. Let’s look at what’s driving the urgency to update in multiple ways and how IT companies can position themselves to help modernize the nation’s defense backbone.

On December 11, 2025, President Trump signed a new executive order that could reshape how AI is governed in the U.S. This executive order titled “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” aims to limit the ability of individual states to enact their own AI regulations, thereby establishing a unified and “minimally burdensome” approach to AI policy nationwide (up until this point, there has been a patchwork of state-level AI regulations).

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a new AI strategy to transform agency operations. Reflecting the federal government’s increasing emphasis on AI adoption, HHS is looking to expand the use of the rapidly advancing technology and encourage workforce development. It outlines a department-level transformation focused on more coordinated enterprise efforts, centralization and shared resources in a vision they are calling OneHHS.