Reflections from the Hawaiʻi Data and AI Summit: Data as More Than Just a Technical Solution

On May 14, 2025, the second annual Hawaiʻi Data and AI summit convened public sector staff along with industry experts from Google, Amazon, IBM, Salesforce, and other leading tech firms to explore how government can leverage data and AI for improved decision-making, efficiency, and delivery of services to the public. Hawaiʻi Data Collaborative’s Thomas Lee attended the summit as a member of the state’s Data Task Force, and sat as a panelist on the State of Hawaii Data Task Force and AI Guidelines Update general session.

Technology is flashy, but strategy determines success

The panel touched on the Data Task Force’s current work in developing policies, guidelines, and publications, while also addressing larger questions regarding the future of data in Hawaiʻi – how the state should be thinking about its response to changes in federal data policy and access; how nonprofits and government can work together to address data needs; and the immediate value that an integrated state data platform would offer. The resulting conversations highlighted what became a recurring theme throughout the conference: the technology may draw excitement and attention, but strategy determines success.

There is no doubt that the tools now available, from cloud storage to AI, provide huge opportunities for government to modernize its data systems. But without the people, process, and policy in place to implement, manage, and maintain new systems, change will be slow and difficult at best. As a nonprofit entity that collaborates with government agencies but doesn’t engage as a contractor, HDC has a unique opportunity to support state and county-level data capacity and culture in Hawaiʻi. This is accomplished in a way that prioritizes people, process, and policy by building a solid understanding of an agency, ecosystem, challenge, and potential paths forward before developing technical tools. This discovery process can stand in contrast, however, to how RFPs and contracts are often structured with time and budget constraints that prioritize delivering technical systems and solutions without explicitly calling for the groundwork that sets a project up for long-term success.

 

Assessing strategy, governance, and literacy as a first step

HDC has found that before developing technical solutions, it’s critical to understand data strategy, governance, and literacy by addressing the following questions.

Data Strategy: Identifying the use case(s) for the data

What insights will this data provide? How will we use it to improve what we do? Why is it important to have the data? Who will benefit from having and using the data? Answering these questions ensures that a data solution aligns with business/organizational goals and isn’t just developed for the sake of having more data.

Data Governance: Having a plan for how data will be managed

What are the policies and parameters to share and protect data? Who will manage the data, and who will have access to it? What are the legal and ethical issues that need to be considered when developing a data system? Answering these questions ahead of time ensures that a data solution will be compliant and that its architecture will be functional and efficient.

Data Literacy: Assessing current organizational capacity and future needs

What is the staff’s current data skill set and capacity? What additional skills, resources, or personnel will be necessary to implement, and more importantly, maintain a data solution? How will that change be managed, and how will staff be set up for success? Answering these questions grounds an agency in the reality that data solutions do not exist without the people who execute implementation, maintain data sets, and utilize them.

Building solutions that don’t just work, but create real impact and value

Answering these foundational questions informs technical decisions and greatly improves the chances that a data solution will meet the needs and the capacity of an agency or organization. With all the buzz around data, AI, and innovative tech solutions, it can be tempting to jump to implementation and assume that more data and AI is always better. Allowing strategy, governance, and capacity to drive development and inform implementation, however, means that a data solution will appropriately fit the context it exists within aligned with strategic goals.