NASCIO’s Annual Top 10 S&L Market Priorities: 2025
On December 12th, 2024, The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released its 2025 annual top 10 priorities list identifying the most pressing technology and policy issues that state CIOs are prioritizing for the upcoming year.
Key takeaways from this year’s list are as follows:
Cybersecurity and risk management took the number one spot for the 12th year in a row, highlighting the importance of having robust security measures baked in throughout all layers of government and critical infrastructure. Over the last few years, cybersecurity threats and attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and maleficent actors are finding new ways to circumvent existing security frameworks as they gain access to new technologies like AI amid a widening attack surface.
In 2025, cybersecurity will still require an all-hands-on-deck, whole-of-state approach involving interagency collaboration and governed under a secure framework such as Zero Trust. There is particular attention on helping communities that face disproportionate challenges in securing their digital environments.
According to a NASCIO survey on cybersecurity, state leaders have identified cybersecurity training, endpoint detection and risk assessments as the top three shared services offered to local governments through IIJA’s State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. 75% of leaders noted that Identity and Access Management (IAM) is formally a part of a statewide digital services strategy, 89% have adopted Multi-factor authentication (MFA), 81% have single enabled single sign-on and 72% have established formal security governance and policy.
The introduction of emerging technologies such as Gen AI present added risk to information security and data privacy. IT staffing issues, cybersecurity talent gap shortages and insufficient funding are causing additional challenges. States and localities are also focusing on enhancing data privacy and protection in critical infrastructure and strengthening incident response planning.
As we head into 2025, technology companies will continue to see demand for solutions that can help end users bolster their cybersecurity posture, such as software and firewall protections, securing a reliable backup system, cyber training for staff and testing for vulnerabilities, systemwide multi-factor authentication, continuous security monitoring, encryption and cloud backup processes. IT companies should stay mindful of requests for information disclosure pertaining to the origin of their data.
In 2025, AI, with emphasis on applications of Generative AI, will garner considerable attention at the state and local government level. AI, machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA), took the number two spot on NASCIO’s top ten technology priorities list this year, making the list for the second time in NASCIO history and stressing the importance of emerging technologies in the SLED technology space. AI is enhancing government operations across all verticals through its multitude of applications including task automation, natural language processing, image recognition and smarter policymaking. AI has the potential to streamline government service delivery, enhance interactions with citizens and mitigate time spent on routine tasks.
States are still in the beginning stages of generative AI adoption and are focusing on the development of strong governance frameworks, testing capabilities through various use cases and closely monitoring the technology’s effects on procurements and contracts, the workforce and accessibility.
According to a recent survey by NASCIO, 8% of state leaders are currently utilizing AI to improve the procurement process. Additional SLED applications of Gen AI include streamlining administrative operations to support the state IT workforce, virtual meeting assistant transcription, cyber operations, document generation and management and software code generation.
The adoption of Gen AI comes with accompanying risks and concerns, and state and local leaders are working to address issues around data readiness, digital literacy, scalability and cost ownership modeling, public records management, sustainability and longevity, transparency and emerging electricity and water resource requirements.
Technology companies should stay apprised of developing AI regulations and policies, while keeping in mind the criticality of working with end users on accompanying security, privacy, accessibility and data governance needs. For IT companies in the security and/or privacy space, SLED customers will be looking for solutions that incorporate security and privacy measures from beginning to end. Secure and resilient AI software development and implementation will require software vulnerabilities to be addressed, and AI manufacturers will need to ensure proper security throughout the product’s entire lifecycle.
Digital government/digital services took the number three spot on NASCIO’s top ten list, with emphasis on the creation of a digital services framework, enhancing citizen-facing services and accompanying portals, ensuring accessibility, identity management, data privacy and the use of digital assistants to streamline operations.
In 2025, the Citizen Experience will continue to be a focal point for state leaders, as today’s highly digital world requires personalized services that provide agility, accountability, transparency, accessibility and efficiency. Digital services help build a foundation of public trust through enhanced transparency and citizen-to-government engagement, resulting in improved interactions for citizens and governments alike.
IT companies will see opportunities for solutions that support interoperability and data-sharing, secure architecture that utilizes development platforms such as low-code/no-code software development, hybrid cloud solutions and AI-based automation tools such as chatbots and virtual assistants.
Accessibility made the list for the first time in NASCIO history, and state leaders are prioritizing accessibility around citizen-facing services, communications, publications and websites. Accessibility will be a key driver when it comes to the state procurement process. State leaders will also face emerging compliance and regulatory demands stemming from the Department of Justice’s new accessibility standards, which include requirements such as closed captions and compatibility with screen readers.
Other top priorities for state leaders include bolstering the workforce, with emphasis on recruitment and retention, training and career advancement, reskilling and upskilling current employees, and succession planning; data management and analytics, essentially a driver of all of these technology applications, stressing strong data governance and architecture, business intelligence, predictive analytics and data-sharing capabilities; legacy modernization, identity and access management, fiscal management and cloud services.
As we begin a new year, we can be sure we’ll see innovative technology adoption that supports ongoing modernization and digitization efforts to enhance the Citizen Experience. You will want to craft messaging around how your technology can supplement existing efforts and tackle each state’s unique pain points and challenges. Be ready to discuss how your solution can streamline service delivery, provide real-time insights, bolster security and privacy, bridge gaps in the workforce and enhance accessibility. Show your customer how easy it is to integrate your solution within their existing data infrastructure; and how compatible it is. To offset challenges around data management and data quality, work with state and local agencies to ease their concerns, providing them the flexibility to become more innovative in future adoption of emerging technologies.
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About the Author: Yvonne Maffia is the senior analyst covering state, local and education markets. She applies insights and analysis to purchasing trends to help vendors and partners shorten their sales cycles. Prior to joining TD SYNNEX Public Sector, Yvonne spent 8 years working in state and local government, where she oversaw advisory boards across the State of Florida and served as an analyst to a local politician. Yvonne currently lives in Washington, DC.
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