Why Every ELEVATE 2026 Session Called for a Unified Data Platform

The sessions described the same problem

I spent two days with the Resultant Public Sector team at the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) ELEVATE 2026 Summit in Milwaukee, where we attended four sessions that looked unrelated on paper: Medicaid and SNAP work requirements, career navigation, cross-state data sharing, and AI in unemployment insurance adjudication. By the second afternoon, we hadn’t heard four problems. It was one problem, described four different ways.

Federal and state mandates are asking more of systems built for a narrower job, and staff are manually making up the difference. The fix that everyone discussed was a shared unified data platform, like a data lake or warehouse, that multiple state systems can draw from.

State leaders discussed the requirements recipients must now meet for SNAP and those taking effect in January 2027 for Medicaid. Verifying hours worked and providing people with job search support demands connecting workforce and health and human services systems that don’t share data today.

That kind of intragovernmental collaboration carries higher stakes than at any point I’ve seen in this field, and it can’t happen without a shared place for the data to live.

First, the foundation

A jobseeker can’t get a good recommendation for work or training when labor market and training provider data live in separate systems. Parents and caregivers cannot enter the workforce without reliable child care and transportation, data that exists in yet other disparate systems. Economic development opportunities are more appealing when states can show businesses a ready workforce in a supportive community with the resources and infrastructure required for success.

My advice to states is to build the foundation first, whatever the need or top use case is. That starts with a modern data platform, backed by strong data governance and sharing practices. AI carries real opportunity, and a later AI use case succeeds when these basics are in place.

Next, the AI use case solution

States described AI moving from pilot to production well beyond UI adjudication to career and training navigation, intake and process improvements, and plain language and translation work, all of which have a better chance of success with a unified data platform.

We’re a Premier implementation partner with Google Public Sector for two AI use cases discussed at ELEVATE, Adjudication Assistant  and Wayfinder, Google’s new AI-powered career navigation tool.

Wayfinder brings career navigation, training, and the tools a jobseeker already uses (a resume builder, virtual interviews, and career pathways) into one experience. States and jurisdictions bring their own data to customize it for their residents, such as an Eligible Training Provider List, Workforce Pell Grant badging, or resources like child care and transportation.

I noticed vocabulary shifting too, from enhanced wage records (context added by hand) to enriched records (where AI pulls a credential or work history detail out of unstructured data no one coded manually). We know the value of an enhanced wage record from our own work, especially one that includes a Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code. Without one, Pivot, the machine learning model we built to recommend jobs and training to unemployment insurance recipients, wouldn’t be possible.

Again, either kind of record is only as useful as the platform it lives on and the governance maintaining it. States still need to weigh which data points in an enhanced wage record add value, then partner with their legislatures, employers, and other stakeholders to build the buy-in that keeps that data accurate.

Every state’s path forward

The fix in every session was the same. Workforce success cannot occur in a vacuum, and cross-agency connection is essential. Nothing at ELEVATE called for invention.

States need one unified data platform where wage records, training data, case files, and benefits data live and agree on what they mean, so each new mandate doesn’t require a new system. Standards and governance make that platform trustworthy enough to run Wayfinder, Adjudication Assistant, a Medicaid work requirements check, and whatever else comes next on top of it.

Every state we heard from was describing how they’d connected what they already had or wished they’d built the unified data platform to do it sooner.