Last week, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (DWA) convened a roundtable in Seattle with AI experts, academic researchers, workforce and labor leaders, and state government technology leadership to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with AI.
One of WaTech’s leaders and the Washington State Chief Technology Officer, Gretchen Peri, was a key speaker at the roundtable, underscoring how Washington is leveraging AI to improve public services, while maintaining strong public trust and human oversight.
Looking at Washington’s statewide AI strategy, Peri emphasized that innovation must be paired with transparency, safety, and human accountability. She highlighted how AI is already enabling agencies to deliver faster, more effective services, from identifying and tracking salmon populations to leveraging intelligent document processing to reduce backlogs and support data-driven decision-making. Peri described the state’s guiding principle as “human in the lead,” stressing that while AI can sort, flag, and accelerate workflows, only people should make decisions that affect residents’ benefits, licenses, or education.
“I like to say we're focused first on the Dull, Dirty, or Dangerous tasks that AI can do consistently, quickly, and at scale,” Peri said.
Avoiding risks and setting rigorous guardrails for safe use is key, as Peri highlighted: Washington’s federated AI governance model requires agencies to assess risks, disclose AI use, and follow proven risk management frameworks, ensuring what we build is trustworthy by design. She also stated that AI’s continued success doesn’t just depend on engineers or executives, there needs to be a broad participation by Washington’s workers, communities, and public servants. Otherwise, technology risks serving corporate interests instead of benefiting the public.
In closing, leaders at the roundtable agreed that AI should serve working families, not disrupt them, and that responsible deployment can help build a future where technology scales under human-led standards to support residents.