Code for America Releases 2026 Government AI Landscape Assessment

Code for America announced in a press release the release of its second annual Government AI Landscape Assessment, which evaluates how U.S. states are progressing in their use of artificial intelligence for public services. The 2026 report builds on the previous year's findings and introduces an updated rubric to measure readiness, piloting, implementation, and impact.

The assessment shows that more states are advancing from early experimentation to operational implementation of AI. However, many remain in the early stages of measuring long-term outcomes. The report identifies Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Vermont as leading states, citing strong executive leadership, cross-agency coordination, and structured pilot programs.

Examples include Maryland's partnership with Anthropic to assist residents in navigating benefit applications, New Jersey's expansion of its NJ AI Assistant to manage public content and document validation, and North Carolina's use of generative AI for document summarization. Pennsylvania is scaling tools to improve document legibility, Texas has issued a comprehensive AI governance framework, Utah is testing an AI chatbot for prescription renewals, and Vermont has published a public inventory of AI tools.

The report draws on publicly available state materials, including policies, executive orders, and direct input from agencies. It was reviewed by Code for America's AI Advisory Council and shared with each state for feedback before publication.