ASA AI Strategic Plan

ASA Strategic Plan for Artificial Intelligence

The ASA Board of Directors has completed a structured strategic planning process to define the Association's role in the AI era. This site presents the draft plan with the three strategic priorities and objectives the Board has committed to pursuing. The ASA Board invites the ASA community to provide input before final ratification at JSM 2026.

AI cannot be developed or deployed responsibly without statistical expertise. The ASA's Strategic Plan for AI provides the framework to support this statement.

What this plan is

This strategic plan reflects the ASA Board of Directors’response to what AI is doing to the landscape of research, practice, and public life.

The plan emerges from a two-hour structured strategic planning session at the spring 2026 Board meeting. It identifies three strategic priorities where the ASA will concentrate resources and action over the next several years, with a draft measurable objective for each. It is grounded in the conviction that statistics has something irreplaceable to offer the AI era. and it is the ASA’s responsibility to ensure that contribution is made.

Read about the process →

The three priorities

Priority 1

Stakeholder Engagement & Advocacy

The statistics profession's unique contributions to responsible AI development are not well understood by policymakers, industry, or the broader public. This priority positions the ASA as an active, visible advocate for carrying the message that AI cannot be developed or deployed responsibly without statistical expertise into policy, standards, and public discourse.

Draft objective: By December 31, 2026, the ASA will identify priority stakeholders across policy, industry, funding, and the scientific community and launch targeted engagement and advocacy campaigns, anchored in the message that AI cannot be developed or deployed responsibly without statistical expertise, as measured by the number of stakeholder engagements, media placements and impressions, formal partnerships or coalitions established, and ASA presence in AI governance and standards conversations.

Draft — open for comment Action steps and progress tracking will be added after JSM ratification.

Priority 2

Next-Generation Talent & Education

Statistics training has not kept pace with where graduates are going or what the field needs. This priority highlights that machine learning must be taught through a statistical lens and must take advantage of what makes statistical training distinctive. The ASA will act concretely to shape how programs evolve.

Draft objective: By JSM 2027, the ASA will develop and disseminate a white paper on statistics curriculum for the AI era, offering concrete recommendations for preparing undergraduate and graduate students for leadership roles in the ethical advancement and use of AI across academe, industry, and government, and will launch an accompanying outreach effort to encourage curriculum modifications consistent with its recommendations, as measured by dissemination reach, the number of departments reporting curriculum modifications consistent with the recommendations, and integration into ASA education and professional development programs.

Draft — open for comment Action steps and progress tracking will be added after JSM ratification.

Priority 3

Culture & Practices of Statistics

Professional development matters. Statisticians need new skills and fluency to engage confidently at the AI frontier. But culture is deeper than skills. This priority addresses what the profession signals it values: in publications, awards, recognition, and how the ASA supports members navigating genuine uncertainty about their professional futures.

Draft objective: By JSM 2027, the ASA will take deliberate steps to shape the culture and practice of the statistics profession in the AI era, including how the ASA recognizes valuable contributions, communicates the profession's identity, and supports members' confidence and sense of purpose, while expanding professional development offerings developed in collaboration with statistical leaders in AI, as measured by the breadth and participation in new professional development offerings, member surveys on professional confidence and identity, and observable changes in ASA publications, awards, and public communications that reflect the profession's evolving identity in the AI era.

Draft — open for comment Action steps and progress tracking will be added after JSM ratification.

See the full priorities page with rationale →

How the five domains connect

All five domains, three strategic priorities

The Board's strategic planning session explored five domains: Culture and Practices of Statistics; Data Work and Infrastructure; Engaging with AI/ML Innovations; Next-Generation Talent and Education; and Stakeholder Engagement and Advocacy. Rather than treating these as parallel tracks, the Board recognized that the work of Data Work and Infrastructure and Engaging with AI/ML Innovations is woven into each of the three priority objectives in curriculum recommendations that address how students engage with AI/ML methods, in the advocacy campaign that positions statisticians as essential contributors to AI development, and in the professional development and culture work that equips members to engage at the technical frontier.

The three priorities are not a narrowing of the conversation. They are an integration of it.

Stakeholder engagement & advocacy Next-gen talent & education Culture & practices each incorporate Data work & infrastructure Engaging with AI/ML innovations

Where we are

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Session completeSpring 2026 Board meeting

→

Community commentOpen now through July 15, 2026

Staff synthesisRevisions incorporating feedback

Board ratificationJSM 2026

ImplementationAction steps & tracking begin

Submit your comments

The community's voice shapes this plan

Comments are open through July 15, 2026. All responses will be reviewed by staff and summarized for the Board before ratification at JSM 2026.

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