How Unrealistic Promises Get Approved

The Government of Canada (GC) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Register collects information about the Government of Canada's AI systems. Its publication fulfils a commitment made in the AI Strategy...

How we can counter these to empower change through informed decision-making and realistic forecasts

Why Government Needs Value Discipline Now

As leadership transitions reshape Canada's public sector, CIOs face increasing pressure to sustain IT performance, ensure continuity, and align with new mandates. Info-Tech Research Group's latest blueprint, Navigate IT Priorities Through Leadership Shifts, offers a structured approach to help government technology leaders manage change with clarity and confidence. The research provides practical tools and frameworks to anticipate priorities, strengthen governance, and build organizational resilience during transition.As public sector organizations across Canada experience increasing leadership transitions and policy shifts, government CIOs are being called upon to adapt IT strategies that align with evolving mandates, fiscal realities, and citizen expectations. To support this transition, Info-Tech Research Group, a global IT research and advisory firm, has published a new blueprint titled Navigate IT Priorities Through Leadership Shifts, offering Canadian government IT leaders a practical roadmap to manage change while maintaining operational stability and strategic focus.The firm's research insights reveal that leadership transitions, whether triggered by elections, departmental restructuring, or shifts in policy direction, can disrupt IT alignment, introduce security and compliance risks, and delay modernization initiatives. Info-Tech's recent findings emphasize that proactive preparation, strategic foresight, and structured incremental action can enable CIOs to turn these periods of uncertainty into opportunities to strengthen governance, rebuild trust, and realign technology priorities with emerging leadership goals."Government IT leaders operate in environments where leadership changes are frequent and politically driven," says Andy Best, research director at Info-Tech Research Group. "These changes can also result in major strategic shifts like the recent Canadian move towards strongly emphasizing digital sovereignty, impacting IT strategies across the enterprise. Rather than treating leadership turnover as a disruption, CIOs can use these moments to reaffirm the value of IT as a strategic enabler of public service delivery, resilience, and transparency." Key Challenges for Government CIOs During Leadership TransitionsLeadership changes can create significant instability across Canadian public sector IT environments. Info-Tech's blueprint highlights several recurring challenges that CIOs must address:• Misaligned priorities as new mandates shift focus away from existing IT strategies and investments.• Budget and workforce uncertainty complicates long-term planning and undermines service continuity.• Heightened security and compliance risks as strained resources and outdated controls create vulnerabilities.These challenges underscore the need for CIOs to anticipate change early, strengthen operational resilience, and maintain clarity of purpose throughout the transition cycle.Info-Tech Research Group Outlines Core Priorities CIOs Need During Leadership ChangeLeadership transitions can serve as a catalyst for strategic renewal when CIOs apply the right capabilities to anticipate change and maintain stability. Info-Tech's newly published blueprint explains that, in addition to following the structured pre-transition, transition, and post-transition phases, government CIOs must draw on the following six essential capabilities to navigate uncertainty, strengthen alignment, and position IT as a trusted partner across the public sector:1. Strategic foresightIdentifies trends, weak signals, and shifts in policy, technology, and citizen expectations to strengthen the CIO's ability to anticipate change, reduce surprises, and position IT to lead rather than react.2. Exponential ITDefines a forward-looking approach to modernization by moving beyond incremental upgrades to transformative platforms such as cloud infrastructure, automation, and artificial intelligence that accelerate innovation and improve service delivery.3. CIO PlaybookServes as the foundational guide for long-term IT leadership, providing structure for portfolio management, governance, innovation scaling, and enterprise-wide alignment with departmental and citizen outcomes.4. CIO Transition PlaybookOutlines the essential steps for the first 100 days of a new mandate or leadership change, helping CIOs stabilize teams, realign strategic priorities, and deliver early wins that build credibility and momentum under new direction.5. Logical incrementalismSupports deliberate, steady progress by balancing risk and pace to maintain progress without overextending teams and by building stakeholder confidence through consistent, measurable execution.6. Special teamsDelivers high-impact, situational responses through pilot projects, proofs of concept, and early automation or AI initiatives that create quick wins, validate innovation potential, and build resilience during transition.By applying this strategic approach, Info-Tech advises that Canadian government CIOs can transform leadership transitions into catalysts for alignment, modernization, and accountable public service delivery. The firm emphasizes that clarity of vision, strong governance, and effective cross-departmental collaboration are key to ensuring IT remains resilient and strategically relevant during periods of change.SOURCE: Info-Tech Research Group

Three Simple Public Sector Principles That Should Guide Everything We Do

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The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s response to the recommendations of the Working Group on Public Service Productivity.

Dominic Rochon, the deputy minister and chief information officer of the Government of Canada has urged public servants to use technology to address the challenges facing the public service as he opened this year’s AccelerateGOV conference.

How Governments Can Make Smarter Decisions

Most safety testing efforts for large language models (LLMs) today focus on evaluating foundation models. However, there is a growing need to evaluate safety at the application level, as components such as system prompts, retrieval pipelines, and guardrails introduce additional factors that significantly influence the overall safety of LLM applications. In this paper, we introduce a practical framework for evaluating application-level safety in LLM systems, validated through real-world deployment across multiple use cases within our organization. The framework consists of two parts: (1) principles for developing customized safety risk taxonomies, and (2) practices for evaluating safety risks in LLM applications. We illustrate how the proposed framework was applied in our internal pilot, providing a reference point for organizations seeking to scale their safety testing efforts. This work aims to bridge the gap between theoretical concepts in AI safety and the operational realities of safeguarding LLM applications in practice, offering actionable guidance for safe and scalable deployment.

Happy Tuesday, Transformation Friends.

Happy Tuesday, Transformation Friends.

Happy Tuesday, Transformation Friends.

Happy Tuesday, Transformation Friends.

Unveiling the Secret to Service Excellence