On April 9th, the Division of Human Resources hosted an AI 101 session at the DHR Summit, providing a practical, hands-on introduction to artificial intelligence in state government. The session was led by Idaho’s Privacy Officer Taylor Bothke and AI Architect James Palmer.
What was Presented
The session opened with Idaho’s broader AI strategy, framing artificial intelligence not as a replacement for state employees, but as a tool to amplify what they do best. Taylor walked attendees through the eight foundational principles that guide responsible AI use across state government, of which are centered on Idaho’s four strategic AI objectives:
- Improving the citizen experience
- Driving operational excellence
- Embedding data-driven governance
- Building public trust and accountability
A significant portion of the presentation focused on safe and responsible use. The presenters covered Idaho’s four data classification levels, explained how Microsoft 365 Copilot operates within the state’s enterprise data protection framework, and outlined practical safety habits: knowing what data you’re working with, using secure environments, and always keeping a human in the loop before acting on AI-generated content.
Why It Mattered
The session included a live demonstration that brought everything together in a real-world DHR scenario. Using fabricated data in actual exit interview templates, James walked the audience through a five-step Copilot prompt sequence from summarizing themes and visualizing trends, to generating retention recommendations, drafting a polished summary email for HR leadership, and building a 30-day action checklist ready to drop into Teams or SharePoint.
The demo made a clear case for AI’s practical value: meaningfully reducing the manual lift involved in turning raw data into actionable HR decisions. For DHR staff and agency partners in the room, the message was direct; the tools are already here, the guardrails are in place, and the state’s enterprise data protections ensure that sensitive information stays secure.
The Five-Step Copilot Demo
The live demonstration walked through the following workflow, showing how Copilot transforms unstructured HR data into organized, actionable outputs:
Step 1
Summarize & Find Trends — Analyzed exit interview documents to surface key themes, reasons for leaving, and what employees value most (with PII removed).
Step 2
Visualize the Trends — Turned identified themes into a ranked breakdown of the top 5 departure reasons by frequency.
Step 3
Make Recommendations — Generated specific, actionable retention strategies tied directly to the themes uncovered.
Step 4
Turn It Into a Polished Email — Converted findings and recommendations into a ready-to-send professional summary for HR leadership.
Step 5
Build a Follow-Up Checklist — Created a structured 30-day action checklist formatted for Teams or SharePoint.
For DHR staff, the April 9th session reinforced a message ITS has been delivering across state government: AI adoption doesn’t have to be complicated or risky when it’s built on the right framework. Resources, guidance, and support are available now through the AI Help Center at its.idaho.gov/ai.
