When Harris County, Texas, launched its innovation lab in 2024, the goal was to explore emerging technologies and identify practical uses for AI. Now, the lab is a pipeline for evaluating and implementing projects that can improve county services.
The lab is one component of how the county approaches artificial intelligence adoption. Harris County has taken a governance-first approach, requiring technology review for AI purchases and monitoring for unauthorized tools, while working toward a common policy to govern AI use across county government. The lab works with county departments to evaluate use cases, determine whether they solve problems and prioritize projects as they are identified.
Executive Director Sindhu Menon and Harris County Universal Services (HCUS) staff are also looking at modernization projects that include AI-enhanced features, such as a permitting system within the vendor selection process and an enterprise resource planning system modernization expected in the near future.
“I am excited about the AI solutions, and because I have radio, public safety, justice, all of this across the board, I’m looking forward to getting everyone to a modernized environment,” Menon said. “We have multiple projects happening in parallel in various areas.”
Menon holds dual titles. She is CIO and executive director of HCUS, the 500-strong division overseeing both fleet and IT operations for the county of 5 million residents. Home to Houston, Harris County is the third most populous in the nation, behind Los Angeles County and Cook County, Ill. Harris County also has a structured technology governance process that combines centralized review of technology purchases, enterprise asset management and cybersecurity oversight to evaluate new tools before they are adopted across county government, she said.
As generative AI moves from experimentation to day-to-day government operations, public agencies are increasingly grappling with a new challenge: not whether to use AI, but how to manage it consistently, securely and at scale. Harris County’s approach reflects that shift.
“We are one of the counties that right from the get-go were on top of AI with a structured governance process,” Menon said. “The number of AI requests has multiplied. So, keeping track and ensuring that we are not putting the county at risk and deliberately addressing cybersecurity as a primary factor [for] technology investments being made is at the forefront.”
County leaders are supportive of the IT shop’s AI progression, she said, and they are working to create AI training similar to how they teach cybersecurity. There is a 99.9 percent cybersecurity training completion rate in the county.
“The county is doing well with cybersecurity training, and it is helping us significantly,” Menon said. “The whole initiative has been a very successful one. The only challenge is just making sure that the AI training also gets imposed in a similar manner. That way, people are staying on track with the required knowledge of how to use AI responsibly.”
AI adoption and training is a work in progress, and shadow AI is always a risk. Shadow AI, like shadow IT, is unsanctioned or ad hoc use of AI that is outside of IT governance. HCUS monitors systems for unauthorized use. If found, the end user is notified, receives a heads up and is given time to disable the tool. If they don’t, it’s done for them.
“Now is that a perfect process? No, but they do get an opportunity to know that we have identified it,” she said. “We will work with them to give them an authorized tool, so they can do their work. We are committed to ensuring that they have access to the tools that they need. However, those tools have to be approved.”
As to countywide efforts, her team looks forward to rolling out both small and large projects, including those for language access solutions, customer service and emergency preparedness. Meanwhile, they continue to work with elected and appointed officials, department leaders, and employees to ensure AI policy is in place and being followed.
“We want to make sure that there is a collective posture for generative AI in the county,” Menon said. “I will be focused on that in the next three to four months.”
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