Agency of Digital Services briefs House committee on consolidation, cybersecurity and AI oversight

Members of the Vermont House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee heard a briefing Thursday, Jan. 23, from Denise Riley Hughes, secretary of the Agency of Digital Services (ADS) and state chief information officer, on ADS’s consolidation work, cybersecurity priorities, artificial‑intelligence oversight and major IT projects including a planned enterprise resource planning replacement.

Hughes told the committee, “For the record ... I’m the secretary for the agency of digital services, and I’m also the state CIO, so that’s chief information officer,” and gave a broad overview of ADS’s mission, organization and near‑term priorities.

Why it matters: ADS centralizes IT services across most of state government and supports elected offices and many agencies. Decisions about standards, budgets, security and consolidation shape how Vermonters interact with state services, how the state responds to cyber incidents and how taxpayer dollars are spent on technology.

Hughes traced ADS’s origin to 2017, when it was created first by executive order and then by statute to reduce duplication across department IT units and produce consistent user experiences. She said ADS now organizes work around four strategic focus areas — user experience,…