The Public Sector Podcast: Advancing Digital Government in Virginia: AI, Data Integration, and Tools for Enhanced Citizen Services

Episode Description:

In this inspiring and wide-ranging keynote, Robert Osmond, Commonwealth CIO of the Virginia IT Agency shares a powerful vision for how public sector technology can evolve—by learning from tomatoes. That’s right—using the tomato supply chain as a metaphor, he walks us through the stages of technological transformation: from origin to innovation, refinement to impact.

Through candid reflections, bold challenges, and practical strategies, this episode explores how Virginia is rethinking its technology foundations to drive large-scale service improvement, empower its workforce, and serve citizens more effectively.

What We Discussed:

• Primary assessment for transformation: Identifying and fixing critical infrastructure needs—data centers, messaging, and networks—before tackling broader goals.

• The importance of people: Why public servants are central to transformation, and how leadership must help teams see new possibilities.

• Strategic foundations: How the Commonwealth is scaling cloud adoption, streamlining legacy systems, and accelerating application modernisation.

• AI and the future: How Virginia is laying a safe, strategic foundation for artificial intelligence adoption across agencies.

• Governance in motion: Building patterns, playbooks, and cross-agency collaboration to scale change responsibly.

Why You Should Listen:

This episode is packed with heart, humour, and hard-won wisdom about leading through complexity. Whether you're in IT, public service, or change leadership, you'll walk away inspired to think bigger, lead braver, and help your team build the future.