The New York State Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) announced the appointment of Shreya Amin as the state’s first chief artificial intelligence (AI) officer. In her new role, Amin will play a pivotal role in shaping AI strategy for ITS, its partner agencies, and New York State.
“We are very pleased to have Shreya join ITS as our very first chief AI officer, and anticipate that her depth of knowledge, professional experience and proven track record in data and AI will be instrumental as we collaborate with New York State agencies, vendors and other partners to advance innovation across our organization,” New York State Chief Information Officer Dru Rai said. “She will help drive the responsible use of this nascent technology and make New York State a leader in AI development for the benefit of all New Yorkers.”
Prior to joining state government, Amin served as chief data and AI scientist at Wellist, a healthtech company. She brings more than 17 years of experience in enterprise AI transformation and data-driven innovation across various sectors.
“I am deeply honored and incredibly excited to join the State of New York as its first Chief AI Officer,” New York State ITS Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Shreya Amin said. “This is an extraordinary opportunity to shape our future through responsible AI. I’m committed to leveraging AI to enhance services, facilitate operations, and drive data-informed decisions, ensuring ethical guardrails, equity, and transparency. Collaborating across agencies and with our communities, we will create meaningful improvements in the lives of our residents while positioning New York as a leader in government AI.”
Amin steps into the new role following New York Gov. Kathy Hochul launching the Empire AI initiative last year. The initiative is a partnership between the state’s leading public and private universities who have come together to establish an AI computing center at SUNY’s University at Buffalo. Empire AI works to facilitate statewide innovation, research, and development of AI technologies,
Coinciding with the Empire AI initiative, ITS wrote and issued the first-ever statewide policy on the Acceptable Use of AI Technologies. The policy now serves as a roadmap for state agencies to adopt AI safely and responsibly. Earlier this year, ITS also issued guidance to agencies to help them identify and catalogue AI systems already in use, and create a transparent public inventory shared with all New Yorkers.
In her new role, Amin will be tasked with leading the ITS effort to refine and improve these guidance documents to meet evolving use cases and continuously modernize the technology solutions ITS delivers. Additionally, she will work to optimize the benefits of AI while minimizing risk, ensure strong human oversight, create efficiencies in government service delivery, and enhance the workplace experience for hardworking state employees.
