How We Got Here
The process behind the ASA’s AI Strategic Plan
This page documents the process the ASA Board of Directors undertook to develop this strategic plan — the framing, the session, the community comment period, and the choices made along the way. Understanding the process is part of understanding the plan.
The moment we are in - framing by 2026 ASA President Jeri Mulrow
One of the genuine pleasures of serving as ASA President is the opportunity to work alongside colleagues who care as deeply about this profession as I do. Every Board meeting offers those moments of connection and shared purpose, but the spring 2026 meeting stands out. The session we devoted to artificial intelligence — not a briefing, not a status update, but a real strategic conversation about what the ASA is going to do — is one we keep returning to.
The conversations happening in policy, industry, and government about how to develop and deploy AI responsibly are happening, far too often, without statisticians in the room. This is the broader landscape in which a statistics department at a major research university closed and ASA members — particularly early-career statisticians — are expressing genuine anxiety about what AI means for their work and their careers. These are not isolated signals. They are a pattern, and they demand a response.
The ASA has been paying attention, and we have a growing body of member engagement on the topic. But statements and attention are not the same as strategy. At the spring 2026 Board meeting, the Board committed to moving from awareness to action.
How the session worked
The two-hour session at the spring 2026 Board meeting was structured in two rounds of small-group work, a gallery and report-out, a prioritization vote, and a full-group synthesis, co-facilitated by ASA President Jeri Mulrow and Executive Director Ron Wasserstein.
Preparation. In the weeks before the session, ASA staff assembled a curated reading repository drawing on the Harvard Data Science Review’s landmark Statistics and AI: A Fireside Conversation, the work of statistical leaders including Bin Yu, Michael I. Jordan, David Donoho, Daniela Witten, and Andrew Gelman, and governance frameworks designed specifically for nonprofit boards navigating AI.
Round 1. Five small groups each explored one of five strategic 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. Each group identified the most important opportunity, the most significant risk, and a vision of success by 2028.
Prioritization. The full Board voted to identify the three highest-priority domains. Data Work and Infrastructure and Engaging with AI/ML Innovations were not abandoned — their themes are integrated throughout the three priorities.
Round 2. Three reformed groups drafted objectives and action steps for each priority domain.
Community comment period
Following the spring session, a draft plan was published for community comment from June through mid-July 2026. The ASA received 14 submissions from across the membership, representing a range of career stages, sectors, and perspectives.
Key themes from the comment period included:
- Strong support for the advocacy priority and the core message that AI requires statistics
- Calls to make the education priority more specific about the balance between statistical foundations and AI/ML methods — a tension the ASA Committee on Data Science and AI addressed directly in their written submission
- Interest in making the culture priority’s recognition mechanisms concrete and timely
- An IBM researcher’s framing of statisticians as “accountability partners” for AI development
The comment analysis was shared with the Board ahead of the JSM 2026 meeting and directly informed the final plan language.
What was adopted
The final plan was approved September 2026.The plan reflects the Board’s spring session and their discussion at JSM 2026 and the community’s voice during the comment period and additional stakeholder input following the JSM 2026 board meeting.