Results of Pennsylvania’s Generative AI Pilot Program, It’s a Time Saver – PennWatch

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Governor Josh Shapiro joined leaders from OpenAI, Carnegie Mellon University, and Pennsylvania’s labor community to unveil the results of the Commonwealth’s first-in-the-nation Generative AI Pilot Program. The findings revealed that employees had a highly positive experience, reporting an average time savings of 95 minutes per day while using ChatGPT for writing, research, summarization, and IT support.

The pilot underscored the importance of human oversight, demonstrated AI’s potential to streamline government operations, and showed that Commonwealth employees across various roles, ages, and demographics benefited from the tool. Employees across multiple roles — including human resources, information technology, policy, and program management — benefited from the tool, helping them work more efficiently and focus on more complex, high-value tasks.

“Pennsylvania is leading the way in responsibly integrating AI into government by giving Commonwealth employees access to tools that enhance efficiency while ensuring people remain at the center of decision-making,” said Governor Shapiro. “This pilot program showed that when used thoughtfully, generative AI can help employees save time, streamline processes, and improve services for Pennsylvanians. But let me be clear — AI will never replace our workers. Instead, we’re equipping them with the best tools to do what they do best: get stuff done for Pennsylvanians.”

In January 2024, Pennsylvania launched its first-in-the-nation pilot program in partnership with OpenAI to explore how generative AI could enhance productivity across state government. The Office of Administration (OA) collaborated with leading generative AI experts and researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University Block Center for Technology and Society throughout the pilot.

Over the course of a year, 175 employees from 14 agencies used ChatGPT Enterprise to test AI’s impact. Nearly half of the participants, 48 percent, had never used ChatGPT before, yet over 85 percent reported a “somewhat positive” or “very positive” experience — demonstrating strong employee buy-in and the tool’s accessibility across different roles.

The results of the pilot, collected through biweekly feedback sessions, user interviews, and live demonstrations, showed significant benefits:

Time Savings: Employees reported saving an average of 95 minutes per day on administrative tasks, such as drafting emails, summarizing lengthy documents, and navigating complex bureaucratic processes.

Enhanced Efficiency: AI-assisted work helped employees improve hiring timelines, streamline procurement, more quickly analyze contracts, and research new policies faster.

Human Oversight Remains Essential: Employees emphasized that AI augments human expertise rather than replacing it, reinforcing the importance of human review and judgment.

Training and Adoption: Early challenges — including a learning curve and workflow adjustments — highlighted the need for robust training to help employees successfully integrate generative AI tools into their daily work. While targeted training and implementation strategies helped address some barriers, ongoing support and adaptation remain essential for maximizing AI’s effectiveness in government operations.

Commonwealth employee Kaylene Wance, an eLearning Developer at OA, shared how the pilot program demonstrated real-world benefits.

“My job is to create engaging, effective digital training courses that resonate with our workforce of 80,000 employees. I quickly learned that if you don’t give good instructions, you don’t get good results. I took the initiative to attend free AI prompt trainings and workshops available through the pilot to build my skills,” said Wance. “Once I got better at crafting prompts, my results improved dramatically, opening the door to exploring additional ways to use generative AI. Whether it’s drafting feedback for training scenarios, restructuring content, outlining courses, or simplifying policies — generative AI has become a powerful tool in my daily workflow. It saves time and helps me focus on more complex tasks. This experience also reinforced something important: AI is a tool that enhances creativity and efficiency, but it can’t replace human expertise. It can’t replace my professional instincts, honed by years of on-the-job experience.”