About ExecutiveTech
If you’ve spent time in federal technology circles, you’ve heard the same explanation for why government IT lags: the regulations are too complex, the procurement system is too slow, the legacy infrastructure is too entrenched. It’s a reasonable-sounding argument. It is also, in my experience, mostly wrong.
I have served as a senior technology executive at six federal agencies. I’ve built AI tools inside a federal broadcaster, saved twelve million dollars annually by re-engineering a public health data infrastructure, and stood up DevOps capabilities in organizations that were told it couldn’t be done. None of it required a change in law. All of it required a leader willing to make a decision.
That gap — between what government technology can do and what it actually does — is a leadership problem. Not a funding problem. Not a compliance problem. A leadership problem. And leadership problems have a solution.
That’s what ExecutiveTech is about.
Here you’ll find technical deep-dives on artificial intelligence and machine learning written for leaders who need to understand what they’re deploying, not just what to call it. You’ll find frank assessments of where federal technology is succeeding and where it is failing — and who is responsible for the difference. You’ll find practical guidance on AI governance, enterprise architecture, and digital modernization from someone who has done it inside the system, not consulted on it from outside.
I am the CIO and Chief AI Officer at the National Endowment for the Arts, a Senior Executive Service federal executive, a Marine Corps veteran, and a doctoral candidate in AI and machine learning at George Washington University. I am a member of the Forbes Technology Council and the founder of Gradient Descent LLC. I have contributed to federal AI policy through the ACT-IAC AI Playbook and have spent the better part of a decade making the case — inside government and now publicly — that courageous leadership is the unlock the sector has been waiting for.
This publication is for federal technology leaders, senior executives, political appointees, and private sector technologists who want to understand what responsible AI adoption actually looks like when the stakes are real and the bureaucracy is real and someone still has to decide.
Subscribe if you want the argument made plainly. I won’t waste your time.
Jim Tunnessen is the Chief Information Officer and Chief AI Officer of the National Endowment for the Arts and a member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service. He is a former Marine Corps sergeant and Army officer, and a frequent speaker on AI governance, digital transformation, and federal IT modernization.
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