JLBC gives favorable review to $13.5M automation request; AI call‑center item excluded from today's vote

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee voted to give a favorable review to the Arizona Department of Administration’s automation-project request totaling $13.5 million across FY2026–27, but JLBC staff left a near‑$800,000 AI call-center line off today’s vote because the agency had not provided enough detail about AI usage.

JLBC staff member Ethan Schneider walked members through the package: $375,000 for statewide portal software and security upgrades, $150,000 for an Arizona Medical Board website update, and $12.9 million for Access’s Medicaid enterprise system IT upgrades. The Medicaid package includes $8.5 million to continue a multi‑year mainframe replacement project and $3.6 million to continue eligibility-system upgrades. Schneider noted "these projects are still in the process of being finalized" and that the agency initially failed to clarify the extent of AI utilization in the call-center item.

Committee members pressed staff on the AI line—about $796,800—asking whether the call center would be primarily chatbot-driven, assisted by humans, or largely live agents with AI support. Schneider said ADA was considering all three options and had not settled on the extent of AI use; as a result staff excluded that line from the review motion. The Vice Chair moved approval for the remainder of the APF package and the motion passed with one recorded nay.

Agency representatives present later clarified that the eligibility-system work is primarily a software modernization (year‑one costs are not the total multi‑year price) and that HR1-related modifications are funded outside of the APF package but will be carried into the upgraded system.