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State CIO outlines technology priorities for House Bill 10, highlights AI pilot and measurement plan
Summary
State Chief Information Officer Kevin Gilbertson told the subcommittee that House Bill 10 focuses on cybersecurity, digitization and innovation, including an AI pilot he said "could save about 3 hours a week." He described an ROI and measurement approach and said staff will identify outcomes at project start; the subcommittee closed HB10 and will forward recommendations to the full committee.
The subcommittee heard testimony on House Bill 10 from Kevin Gilbertson, Montana’s state chief information officer, who described the bill’s technology requests as centered on cybersecurity, digitization, and selected innovation pilots — including an artificial intelligence pilot for testing possible efficiency gains.
Gilbertson said many IT requests are driven by regulatory and federal-reporting requirements but emphasized public-facing value: digitization, he said, helps get citizens to the right person quickly and produces data to drive decisions. He described a two-part ROI approach that balances financial impact and public value (transparency, welfare, compliance, service delivery) and said the office is developing metrics to measure outcomes at the start of projects so they can be evaluated or canceled if they fail to meet objectives.
On the AI pilot, Gilbertson summarized why the administration included limited testing in HB10: "I've got AI in one of the bills, just to test because...research is showing right now is that you can save about 3 hours a week using AI." He said private-sector results are promising for offloading routine questions and letting staff focus on more complex work, but stressed pilots must be implemented safely and measured for actual public-value impact.
Members asked detailed follow-ups. Representative Billings and others asked whether agencies maintain lists of needs and how the committee can verify that large IT appropriations produce measurable results. Gilbertson said some agencies have formal lists and outcomes; others do not. He said his office is working to bring consistent measurement to projects and would identify expected outcomes at project outset.
Gilbertson also described the office’s external supports and oversight: a contract with Gartner for independent consulting, membership in the National Association of State CIOs, and the statutory Information Technology Board that meets quarterly and includes agency and legislative representatives. He recommended that certain security discussions might be better suited to closed-door sessions to avoid creating actionable information for potential attackers.
There were no proponents or opponents online. The subcommittee closed House Bill 10, took no recorded roll-call vote in this hearing, and forwarded its recommendation to the full committee.
