21 Government Agencies and Leaders Show What Digital Transformation Can Achieve

2026 Digital Government Awards winners cut service delivery times up to 80%, reclaim thousands of staff hours, and operationalize AI to deliver trusted 24/7 resident services

Media Inquiries

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Granicus today announced the winners of its 15th Annual Digital Government Awards, recognizing 21 public sector agencies and leaders across North America who are delivering step-change improvements in service delivery speed and accuracy, operational efficiency, and constituent satisfaction through digital transformation and AI adoption.

The 2026 award winners reflect a broader shift across the public sector, as agencies move beyond fragmented tools and manual processes to unified, AI-powered platforms that improve experiences for both staff and constituents. As agency demands grow, the downsides of disconnected systems are becoming unavoidable—slow service delivery, staff burnout, reduced accountability, and erosion of public trust. This year's winners show what's possible when agencies rely on proven, built-for-government experience platforms paired with expert guidance on workflows, solution-tuning and application of AI with the proper guardrails and controls. With this foundation in place, agencies can move more quickly from experimentation to production—delivering services up to five times faster, reclaiming as much as 75% of staff capacity, and providing reliable 24/7 access for residents without adding headcount.

"Congratulations to the 2026 Digital Government Award winners for the real, measurable improvements they're delivering for constituents and staff," said Mark Hynes, CEO of Granicus. "Granicus exists to support this kind of progress—helping governments deliver clear, accessible, and trusted digital experiences that save time, strengthen confidence, and improve outcomes."

The 2026 Digital Government Award Winners

The award winners represent a cross-section of more than 7,000 public sector organizations that rely on Granicus' Government Experience Cloud. GXC is the only platform purpose-built for government to provide a single integrated solution for the entire constituent experience, from first contact to completed service and performance insight. Winners also deployed Granicus' AI-powered digital agent and analytics solutions, Government Experience Agent (GXA) and Government Experience Insights (GXI), to accelerate resident self-service and obtain real-time audience and experience journey analytics.

The winners showcase both innovation and positive impact for their constituents and communities through seven categories of excellence: Total Government Experience, Changemaker, Community Engagement, Operational Excellence, Service Delivery, Trust & Transparency, and Website of the Year.

2026 Winners by Category:

Total Government Experience 

• City of Aurora, IL: Replaced fragmented website, 311, and communications with a unified community portal, creating a clear path from information to action, resulting in faster service delivery to residents. 
• Passaic Valley Water Commission (PVWC): Connected website, billing, project updates, and payments into a single digital experience, improving accessibility and transparency for residents. 
• City of Reno, NV: Transformed boards and commissions into one platform, consolidating records and appointments and cutting processing times from months to days while reducing costs through automation. 

Changemaker Award 

• India Mitchell — Clayton County, GA: Transformed open records from a compliance burden into a countywide service standard, delivering faster responses, clearer accountability, and consistent transparency across departments. 
• Crystal Sprague — Unified Government of Wyandotte County & Kansas City, KS: Led a governed, people first rollout of Government Experience Agent (GXA), enabling multilingual, 24/7 AI‑ powered service while establishing enterprise content standards, safeguards, and analytics to expand access and free staff for higher‑value work. 
• Jon Zaghloul — City of Aurora, IL: Unified Aurora's website, engagement, and communications into a single resident ecosystem, launching more than 50 projects and a 160,000 subscriber communications program that dramatically expanded reach, responsiveness, and two‑way civic participation. 

Community Engagement 

• Beaufort County School District (BCSD): Replaced scattered, low-participation outreach with an always‑on hub to centralize learning, surveys, and updates, engaging more than 10,000 stakeholders and supporting 22 initiatives with consistent, two-‑way input. 
• Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP): Extended reach to underrepresented communities in its Safe Travel For All initiative using multilingual tools and hotspot mapping, exceeding participation goals by 50%. 
• City of Penticton, BC: Used segmented, multi-channel digital engagement to obtain input from thousands of residents to inform long-term planning for waterfront access, amenities, and preservation. 

 Operational Excellence 

• Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT): Modernized utility permitting through an end-to-end consolidated platform, cutting technician time by 60%, automating 17,000 notifications, and reclaiming more than 1,200 staff hours annually through a single, transparent workflow. 
• City of Calabasas, CA: Replaced a 7,000‑person paper waitlist for a public recreation center with automated digital forms and workflows, reducing staff time by 75% — and disputes by 80% — while delivering a fair, timestamped, resident ‑friendly enrollment process. 
• Town of Queen Creek, AZ: Simplified complex, multidepartment records requests with automated workflows and real‑time status tracking, minimizing staff burden and reducing
  turnaround time from weeks to just five days.

Service Delivery 

• Arlington National Cemetery: Used real ‑time, location-based SMS during Wreaths Across America to safely guide thousands of attendees, improving wayfinding, volunteer coordination, and on‑site communication without disrupting the event's dignity. 
• Philadelphia Water Department (PWD): Moved a meter replacement program to an end-to-end resident engagement platform, supporting more than 470,000 upgrades with personalized communications and surveys, reducing missed appointments and earning a 95% positive customer rating through clear, proactive communication at every step. 
• City of Vaughan, ON: Fully digitized permitting processes, cutting intake time from 10 days to two while automating reviews, document handling, and resubmissions for faster, clearer service. 

Trust & Transparency 

• City of Kingston, ON: Led a transparent, multichannel engagement effort for a proposed multisport stadium, using advanced engagement tools to regularly communicate updates, publicly answer every question, and analyze feedback to equip civic leaders with a clear, representative community mandate. 
• Philadelphia Water Department (PWD): Used segmented digital communication to address potential lead service lines, helping households, schools, and childcare centers take action while strengthening trust around a sensitive public health issue. 
• City of Newport News, VA: Expanded open data access and launched a public FOIA 
  request archive, increasing traffic 68% year over year while improving compliance, consistency, and public confidence.

Website of the Year 

• City of Port St. Lucie, FL: Redesigned the city's website around resident behavior and analytics, surfacing high‑demand services and simplifying navigation to deliver a mobile-first digital front door for a fast growing community. 
• Richland County, SC: Created a modern service delivery platform and website with plain language and live pages, retiring more than 8,000 PDFs, increasing self-service, and reducing help‑desk tickets to near zero.
• City of West Palm Beach, FL: Launched a new service delivery platform and website serving 1.3 million users with daily accessibility audits, a switch-ready hurricane homepage, and a 94.8 QA score — well above government benchmarks. 

Learn More
To explore the full list of award winners and watch their video stories, visit
Granicus.com/Awards

About Granicus
Granicus is the global leader in customer experience technologies and services for government, supporting more than 7,000 public sector organizations worldwide. Through its Government Experience Cloud (GXC), Granicus helps governments deliver trusted, accessible, and impactful digital services—strengthening engagement, improving operational efficiency, and enhancing outcomes for the people they serve. Through its AI-powered digital agent and analytics solutions, Government Experience Agent (GXA) and Government Experience Insights (GXI), Granicus supports agencies in the responsible application, governance and delivery of AI solutions that drive automation and better constituent journeys while incorporating the unique guardrails and context of the public sector experience

SOURCE Granicus