How We Got Here
The process behind the ASA’s AI Strategic Plan
This page describes the process the ASA Board of Directors undertook to develop this strategic plan: the framing, the session, and the choices made along the way. Understanding the process is part of understanding the plan.
The moment we are in
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 ASA Board committed to moving from awareness to action.
How the session worked
The two-hour session was structured in two rounds of small-group work, a gallery and report-out, a prioritization vote, and a full-group synthesis.
Preparation. In the weeks before the session, staff assembled a curated reading repository drawing on the ASA Statement on The Role of Statistics in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, “Rebuilding Statistics in the Age of AI: A Town Hall Discussion on Culture, Infrastructure, and Training”, and the AI Index, an initiative at the Stanford HAI. Board members were asked to come prepared, and they did.
Round 1. Five small groups were each assigned 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 single most important opportunity for the ASA in their domain, the single most significant risk if the ASA fails to act, and a vision of what success looks like by 2028.
Prioritization. The full Board voted to identify the three highest-priority domains for concentrated ASA investment and action. The remaining two domains — Data Work and Infrastructure and Engaging with AI/ML Innovations are not abandoned; their themes are integrated into the three priorities.
Round 2. Three reformed groups drafted SMART objectives and action steps for each of the three priority domains — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound commitments that will anchor implementation.
What emerged. Not a finished plan, but something more valuable at this stage: a shared frame, a set of real commitments, and a draft scaffold that staff are now developing into a full strategic plan for community comment and JSM ratification.
What comes next
The Board will ratify the final strategic plan at JSM 2026. Between now and then, the community has the opportunity to respond to the draft objectives.
Your voice shapes this plan
Comments are open through July 15, 2026. All responses will be reviewed and summarized for the Board before ratification.