Spring 2026 Workshop Series

Discover our spring workshop series, created with partners to help you dive deeply into timely public-sector topics, expand your capabilities with emerging tools and methods, and learn approaches you can put to work right away. Each series brings together thematically connected, one-hour sessions that foster deeper insight, support hands-on learning, and strengthen real-world skills. All workshops are free and open to everyone.

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Elephants in the AI Room

Elephants in the AI Room

Addressing displacement, accessibility, energy and the environment — the most requested “tough questions” about AI.

The Results Lab: Evidence in Motion

The Results Lab: Evidence in Motion

State and local governments increasingly collect large amounts of program, operational, and community data, yet many agencies still struggle to translate that information into continuous improvement, adaptive management, and better public outcomes. At the same time, government leaders and program managers are under growing pressure to demonstrate the ongoing value and worthiness of their programs to elected officials, funders, community stakeholders, and the public, often in rapidly changing political, fiscal, and operational environments.This three-part series focuses less on technical evaluation methods alone and more on how government leaders and program managers can use data, evidence, community feedback, and AI-supported insights to strengthen decision-making, demonstrate program value and relevance in real time, adapt programs over time, and improve service delivery. The series combines practical frameworks, real-world government examples, and moderated discussions with practitioners using these approaches across state and local government settings.

 The Prompting Lab

The Prompting Lab

A weekly, hands-on practice lab led by public-sector AI leaders, using real prompts and real challenges across platforms to build practical skills.

Ideas in Action

Ideas in Action

The series brings together timely conversations on leadership, technology, service delivery, organizational design, and governance, always grounded in the realities of public sector work. 

Mastering Public Communication in the AI Age Series

Mastering Public Communication in the AI Age Series

Amplify equips public-sector professionals with clear, credible communication skills through expert workshops and coaching for the AI era and beyond.

Prediction, Automation, and Decision Making with AI

Prediction, Automation, and Decision Making with AI

Learn when new forms of automation, analysis and prediction work and when they don’t and how to tell the difference. Co-hosted with Princeton CITP.

Practical Strategies for Buying and Building Public AI

Practical Strategies for Buying and Building Public AI

Understanding what “public AI” is, why it matters, how governments build it, and practical strategies to ensure independence and avoid vendor lock-in.

 Most requested: Leadership Skills

Most requested: Leadership Skills

These workshops highlight leading InnovateUS speakers and provide practical insights, lessons, and core guidance tailored to public sector challenges.

Opening Data for AI Innovation

Opening Data for AI Innovation

How to improve data accessibility and interoperability to support responsible AI development while safeguarding privacy, security, and public trust.

 AI for Public Sector Legal Professionals

AI for Public Sector Legal Professionals

Applying AI to legal work and attorney general functions responsibly and effectively.

AI and Public Transportation

AI and Public Transportation

Exploring AI’s role in improving transit operations, safety, planning, and customer experience.

Human-Centered Design

Human-Centered Design

Applying design thinking to public challenges, including examples of AI-assisted service design.

 

Data Analysis and Visualization with AI

Data Analysis and Visualization with AI

Using AI to clean, analyze, and visualize public data for evidence-based decisions.

AI for Literacy Achievement

AI for Literacy Achievement

AI for Literacy Achievement AI brings together recorded workshops on how educators, public professionals, communities, and caregivers can use AI to support stronger literacy outcomes. These sessions explore practical ways AI can help expand access to reading support, personalize learning, strengthen educator capacity, and better identify where students need help. Designed for people working to improve literacy achievement, especially for children who have been underserved by traditional systems, this collection offers real examples, clear strategies, and grounded conversations about how to use emerging technology responsibly and effectively.

AI and Energy

AI and Energy

The energy footprint of AI, sustainability and efficiency strategies, and implications for public policy.

Using AI for Digital Accessibility

Using AI for Digital Accessibility

Leveraging AI-assisted tools to evaluate and improve accessibility in public digital services.

AI and Human Services: Innovating to Serve People Better

AI and Human Services: Innovating to Serve People Better

Applying AI to enhance benefits delivery, case management, and service design, emphasizing ethical use, equity, and improved outcomes for all.

Democratic Engagement for the AI Era

Democratic Engagement for the AI Era

Learn how to design effective and efficient AI-enhanced citizen engagement that translates public input into meaningful outcomes.

Innovating in the public interest

Innovating in the public interest

Innovating in the Public Interest is a six-part workshop series, in partnership with the Pi-Squared Initiative, focused on helping public sector professionals collaborate effectively with private organizations. Participants learn practical strategies for identifying partners, aligning goals, and building scalable, mission-driven collaborations.

Building Better City Services

Building Better City Services

This three-part UX Practices and Talent series is designed to help city government leaders understand how user experience (UX) practices can improve the way public services are designed and delivered.

Foundations of Leadership: Leading Teams, Change, and Public Impact

Foundations of Leadership: Leading Teams, Change, and Public Impact

Join Anita McGahan for a five-session series designed to help public professionals strengthen the foundations of collaboration so they can work more effectively with colleagues and achieve better outcomes with less friction. Across the sessions, participants will explore practical strategies for building trust, improving coordination, and navigating the interpersonal and organizational challenges that often make teamwork harder than it needs to be.

AI Insourcing and the Government Product Model

AI Insourcing and the Government Product Model

Explore how governments can build, improve, and govern digital products using AI and stronger internal capacity.

Amplify: Mastering Public Communication in the AI Age Series

Amplify: Mastering Public Communication in the AI Age Series

Build clear, credible, and accessible communication strategies for explaining public programs, services, and AI use.

Public HR Professionals

Public HR Professionals

Use AI to responsibly support hiring, onboarding, workforce planning, and talent management while protecting fairness and human judgment.

Public Communication

Public Communication

Public sector communicators have never faced a more complex information environment. Audiences are fragmented across platforms and echo chambers. Government agencies are deploying AI in ways that demand new levels of transparency and public accountability. And too many communities — those who speak languages other than English, those who have historically distrusted government institutions — are still not being reached at all.

This workshop series continues InnovateUS’s Amplify: Mastering Public Communication in the Age of AI workshop series and will help public-sector professionals communicate clearly, credibly, and effectively. Building on foundational skills from previous seasons, this series turns toward harder, structural challenges: how to reach audiences who no longer share a common information environment, how to explain what government is doing with AI in ways that build rather than erode trust, and how to design communication that genuinely works for everyone.

Through expert-led workshops and hands-on coaching, participants will develop practical strategies for navigating fragmentation, demystifying algorithmic decision-making, and building more equitable outreach. These skills are increasingly essential for anyone working in public communication today.

By the end of this series, participants will be able to:

  • Develop platform-specific communication strategies that reach constituents across a fragmented media landscape, including newsletters, podcasts, short-form video, and closed messaging apps, without sacrificing credibility or consistency.

  • Craft clear, trustworthy narratives that explain how their agency is using AI — including in service delivery, benefits administration, and law enforcement — to skeptical or anxious publics.

  • Apply equitable communication design principles, including plain-language writing, culturally responsive framing, and multilingual outreach strategies, to better serve linguistically diverse and historically underserved communities.

  • Assess how emerging tools, including AI-assisted translation and sentiment analysis, can expand reach and improve accessibility while remaining attentive to the risks of bias and exclusion.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Predictive AI

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Predictive AI

Examine when using predictive AI can improve public-sector decisions, when it falls short, and what safeguards responsible use requires.

Public Health

Public Health

Introduces public health leaders and practitioners to policies, tools, and skills to improve the health and well-being of our communities.

AI and Cybersecurity in the Public Sector for the Non-Expert

AI and Cybersecurity in the Public Sector for the Non-Expert

Learn the security challenges posed by the use of AI in government and public-facing settings and how to reduce vulnerabilities.

AI for Government Procurement

AI for Government Procurement

Build practical skills to leverage AI to improve competitiveness, effectiveness, and efficiency in procurement.

Worker-Centered AI Adoption in the Public Sector

Worker-Centered AI Adoption in the Public Sector

Learn how to engage workers as partners in AI adoption to improve implementation, governance, and public outcomes.

Working with AI Agents in the Public Sector: What Works (and What Doesn’t)

Working with AI Agents in the Public Sector: What Works (and What Doesn’t)

Learn what AI agents are, how they can support government operations and public service delivery, and their responsible use.

Practical Approaches to Evaluating AI for Public Benefit

Practical Approaches to Evaluating AI for Public Benefit

Learn how to assess whether AI tools improve outcomes, strengthen services, and deliver public value over time.

Using AI in Public Sector Legal Practice

Using AI in Public Sector Legal Practice

Explore responsible uses of AI in government legal work, including research, drafting, document review, compliance, and policy analysis.

 

AI, Energy, and the Environment: Use, Policy, and Tradeoffs

AI, Energy, and the Environment: Use, Policy, and Tradeoffs

Examine the energy and environmental challenges and opportunities of AI-related infrastructure and public-sector uses of AI.