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State CIO presents phased IT centralization and AI strategy, flags costs and rapid change
Summary
Montana's state chief information officer outlined a phased IT centralization tied to an executive order, explained how AI is changing application development and maintenance, and said an inventory and product-management approach will guide which systems move under DOA oversight.
Kevin Gilbertson, the State Chief Information Officer, described an IT centralization plan grounded in an executive order that creates an Integration Management Office and a cabinet-level steering committee. Gilbertson framed the work as both a governance and technical effort, and emphasized an inventory-driven, phased approach to avoid breaking agency operations.
Gilbertson told the committee that artificial intelligence is shifting the economics of software development and maintenance, enabling quicker internal builds for some applications while changing vendor pricing and hardware demands. “As many of you might have heard, there's this this thing out called the, artificial intelligence now that is changing things a bit,” he said, arguing the timing makes centralization practical.
The CIO described an initial inventory that identified dozens — and likely many more — state permitting and business systems, and said DOA will not bring every system in. He listed categories of exclusions (for example, agency-specific health systems and GIS) and said DPHHS operational systems such as EHRs, SNAP, TANF and other tightly coupled business applications will largely remain with agencies though some support and common services may be provided centrally.
Gilbertson argued centralization can reduce vendor license costs and eliminate duplicate applications; he said the state already used AI to replace one commercial contract and expects to decommission some vendor services next year. He proposed new roles — a chief product officer, chief experience officer and product managers — to prioritize development and to ensure new in-house builds align with statewide roadmaps and avoid producing “busy work.”
Committee members raised concerns about rising IT costs, the risk of overbuilding platforms that may be obsolete in months, and the need to involve end users in procurement and design. Gilbertson said a central ticketing/reporting architecture (ServiceNow) will be re‑architected for enterprise reporting and that KPIs such as average time to resolution, customer satisfaction and IT cost per user will be tracked.
Gilbertson and other presenters said the work will be phased and deliberately limited to items that produce repeatable enterprise value; the committee did not take action and requested follow-up briefings and KPI updates as the integration office moves from planning into execution.
