Governor Kathy Hochul announced on April 6, 2026 the expansion of AI education and training to the entire New York State workforce — over 100,000 state employees — making New York the largest US state to provide such a programme. The announcement fulfils a pledge made in the 2025 State of the State address.
The programme builds on a pilot completed in late 2025 in which more than 1,200 volunteers across eight state agencies received AI training and access to AI Pro, ITS’s secure generative AI assistant powered by Google Gemini. Pilot results showed 75% of participants saved time and 90% reported improved AI understanding.
Training structure: The InnovateUS two-part training course is specifically designed for public sector employees and focuses on responsible AI use. InnovateUS has trained over 200,000 public sector learners across 50 states and 80 countries.
Key obligation: Responsible AI training is required for any state agency that elects to use AI Pro. The AI Pro tool and training are being rolled out to 50+ state agencies and entities supported by the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS).
Statewide acceptable use policy: ITS has issued a statewide Acceptable Use of AI Technologies policy, providing a roadmap for all state agencies on safe and responsible AI adoption.
The programme does not constitute a universal mandate that every civil servant must complete training before using any AI system, nor does it specify verification or enforcement mechanisms for non-AI-Pro contexts. It does, however, establish a defined standard (InnovateUS two-part curriculum) that is binding for AI Pro-adopting agencies.
Score note: dimension 11 moves from 0 to 1. Training is now required for agencies adopting AI Pro with a defined programme, but is not universally mandated for all civil servants using AI systems, and no deployment-gate verification process is established.