{"id":73250,"date":"2025-10-16T11:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=73250"},"modified":"2025-10-16T11:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:00:52","slug":"texas-appoints-first-chief-ai-innovation-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/texas-appoints-first-chief-ai-innovation-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas appoints state’s first chief AI and innovation officer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Texas on Wednesday appointed its first chief AI and innovation officer, naming Tony Sauerhoff to lead a new AI division inside the Texas Department of Information Resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tony
Tony Sauerhoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sauerhoff steps into the role after serving for one year as Texas\u2019s chief information security officer, where he helped establish a portal<\/a> for local government agencies to report cybersecurity incidents. He also held cybersecurity roles at the U.S. Courts and the Marine Corps Reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his new role, he\u2019ll help Texas agencies determine how to test, evaluate and use AI tools effectively. The division is also working on a state AI code of ethics and shared procurement tools for technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Sauerhoff’s appointment, Texas joins several states \u2014 including New York and Vermont \u2014 that have also hired chief AI officers, or similar positions, in recent years, reflecting the growing influence of generative AI in state government. The hires follow Former President Joe Biden’s 2023 executive order<\/a> formalizing the role for federal agencies meant to establish a “safe, secure, and trustworthy use of artificial intelligence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York State\u2019s technology bureau in March hired Shreya Amin<\/a> as the state\u2019s chief AI officer, tasking her with refining the Information Technology Services\u2019 guidance on AI and modernizing the state\u2019s technology offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vermont\u2019s Agency of Digital Services last year combined its AI and data teams, and appointed Josiah Raiche<\/a> as chief data and AI officer to lead them. Raiche has advocated for the state to establish a code of ethics around the use of generative AI before writing formal policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really looking at how we\u2019ll use AI to solve some of our workforce challenges, to make experiences better for Vermonters,” Raiche said during StateScoop\u2019s IT Modernization Summit last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And last month, Montana hired Christopher Tarabochia, a former product manager for Microsoft’s Xbox division, as its first chief AI officer “to lead strategy, ethical use, and collaboration across agencies, schools, tribal governments, universities, and industry,” according to a job listing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas has appointed Tony Sauerhoff, the state’s cyber chief, as its first chief AI and innovation officer. He’ll lead a new AI division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":614,"featured_media":73260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24394],"tags":[73,302,3973,5272,13110,25917,25918],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[24250],"class_list":["post-73250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","tag-texas","tag-chief-innovation-officer","tag-state-government","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-government-technology","tag-chief-ai-officer","tag-tony-sauerhoff","author-sophia-fox-sowell"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas appoints state's first chief AI and innovation officer | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas has appointed Tony Sauerhoff, the state's cyber chief, as its first chief AI and innovation officer. 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