Assessing America's AI Action Plan: Opportunities for the Information Management Industry

As President and CEO of the Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM), I've spent time analyzing the recently released America's AI Action Plan alongside our organization's response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy's request for information (member only resource). While there are notable differences between what AIIM recommended and what the Administration ultimately prioritized, I see significant opportunities for collaboration and partnership moving forward.

Alignment on Core Priorities

The Action Plan demonstrates strong alignment with several key principles AIIM has long advocated. Most importantly, we share a commitment to empowering AI innovation and growth through practical, supportive measures rather than restrictive regulations.

Accelerating AI Adoption: The Administration's clear intent to accelerate AI adoption through initiatives like the AI procurement toolbox for federal agencies aligns perfectly with AIIM's goal of removing barriers to responsible AI implementation. As one of the world's largest customers, federal procurement decisions significantly influence industry standards and product development roadmaps—making this a particularly impactful initiative.

Infrastructure Investment: The Plan's focus on stabilizing and optimizing the electric grid directly supports the data centers that our industry depends on. This infrastructure-first approach recognizes that AI innovation requires robust foundational systems, something AIIM members understand intimately from managing enterprise information systems.

Standards Over Regulations: Both AIIM and the Administration favor standards-based approaches over rigid regulatory frameworks. While AIIM advocated for a universal framework to simplify compliance across jurisdictions, the Plan's emphasis on leveraging NIST standards and developing evaluation methods reflects a similar preference for flexible, industry-informed guidance.

Secure-by-Design Technologies: The commitment to promoting secure-by-design AI technologies, including continued refinement of DOD's Responsible AI and Generative AI Frameworks, validates AIIM's emphasis on building governance into systems from the ground up rather than retrofitting security and compliance measures.

Data Quality as Strategic Priority: The Administration's recognition that "high-quality data has become a national strategic asset" directly aligns with AIIM's core mission. The Plan's commitment to building "the world's largest and highest quality AI-ready scientific datasets" validates what information management professionals have long understood—that data quality determines AI system effectiveness.

AI System Auditability: The Plan's clear interest in the ability to audit AI systems, including commitments to "test AI systems for transparency, effectiveness, use control, and security vulnerabilities," reflects AIIM's emphasis on explainability and accountability. This focus on auditable systems is essential for enterprise adoption and regulatory compliance.

Workforce Development: The Plan's support for expanding AI literacy and skills development creates direct opportunities for AIIM's educational initiatives. Our AI certificate course may qualify as eligible educational assistance under Section 132 of the Internal Revenue Code, as outlined in the Plan's workforce development provisions.

Where We See Different Approaches

AIIM's response to the RFI emphasized the need for a universal framework—essentially a coherent set of standards that organizations could follow consistently across sectors and applications. The Action Plan, while comprehensive in scope with over 90 policy actions, takes a different approach. Rather than establishing a unified framework, it presents a broad policy agenda across three pillars: innovation, infrastructure, and international diplomacy and security.

This difference isn't necessarily problematic, but it does mean continued uncertainty for organizations seeking clear guidance on AI governance. Our members—information managers, records managers, archivists, and IT professionals—need practical standards to manage AI-generated content, ensure data quality, and maintain compliance with evolving requirements.

Opportunities for Collaboration

Data Quality and Standards Development

The Plan's commitment to developing "minimum data quality standards for biological, materials science, chemical, physical, and other scientific data modalities in AI model training" represents a perfect intersection of government need and information management expertise. Our members possess decades of experience in data governance, quality assurance, and information lifecycle management—exactly the skills needed to achieve these ambitious goals. AIIM stands ready to help develop these standards and ensure they're practical for implementation across diverse organizational contexts.

"Try-First" Culture and Regulatory Sandboxes

The Administration's vision for establishing a "try-first" culture through regulatory sandboxes and AI Centers of Excellence presents exciting opportunities for information management professionals. These initiatives could provide safe spaces for testing AI governance approaches, piloting new data management techniques, and developing best practices for AI oversight. This creates space for industry input and collaboration. AIIM's members, with their deep understanding of unstructured data management, are uniquely positioned to contribute to these experimental environments.

Federal Procurement and Standards

The development of an AI procurement toolbox for federal agencies could significantly influence product roadmaps across the information management industry. AIIM sees this as an opportunity to ensure that information governance principles are built into these procurement guidelines from the beginning.

Bridging the Framework Gap

While the Action Plan doesn't establish the universal framework AIIM recommended, it does create multiple touchpoints for developing practical guidance. The Plan's emphasis on NIST's role in developing standards and evaluation methods provides a pathway for industry collaboration. AIIM is well-positioned to work with NIST and other agencies to translate the Plan's broad objectives into actionable standards that organizations can implement.

Information Provenance and Transparency

The Plan's commitment to transparency and accountability in AI systems aligns with AIIM's advocacy for source citation requirements and metadata standards. While the Plan doesn't explicitly mandate our recommended "Digital Commons" approach, it does emphasize the importance of explainability and evaluation. There's significant opportunity to work with agencies like NIST to develop practical approaches to information provenance that support both innovation and accountability.

Human Oversight Integration

The Plan's recognition that federal employees need "appropriate training" for AI tools validates AIIM's emphasis on human-in-the-loop approaches. Our community's expertise in information validation, quality control, and governance makes information management professionals natural candidates for AI oversight roles. The Plan's workforce development initiatives provide a framework for scaling this expertise across government and industry.

Looking Forward: Partnership Opportunities

Rather than viewing differences between AIIM's recommendations and the Action Plan as missed opportunities, I see them as starting points for productive collaboration. The Administration has clearly prioritized rapid innovation and deployment, while AIIM has emphasized the governance frameworks necessary for sustainable, responsible AI adoption. Both perspectives are essential for long-term success.

The information management industry has a crucial role to play in implementing the Action Plan's vision. Our members understand the complexities of managing unstructured data—the foundation of most AI systems. As the Plan's initiatives move from policy to implementation, the government will need partners who can translate broad objectives into practical, workable solutions.

AIIM is committed to working constructively with the Administration and federal agencies to:

• Develop practical data quality standards that support both innovation and governance
• Contribute information management expertise to regulatory sandboxes and pilot programs
• Help design training programs that prepare the workforce for AI oversight responsibilities
• Ensure that information governance principles are integrated into federal procurement decisions
• Support the development of evaluation methods that balance innovation with accountability

Conclusion

America's AI Action Plan represents an ambitious vision for maintaining U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. While it takes a different approach than AIIM recommended, it creates numerous opportunities for the information management community to contribute meaningfully to the nation's AI future.

The Plan's success will ultimately depend on effective implementation, and that's where the information management industry's expertise becomes invaluable. By working collaboratively with federal agencies and the broader AI ecosystem, we can help ensure that America's AI leadership is built on a foundation of sound information governance, data quality, and responsible deployment practices.

The conversation about America's AI future is just beginning, and AIIM is eager to be a constructive partner in making that future both innovative and trustworthy.