RALEIGH -- Legislators must push for more technology solutions to help the state operate more efficiently, a bipartisan panel of state leaders agreed during a presentation at the North Carolina Digital Government Summit in Raleigh.

The North Carolina Digital Government Summit is a two-day meeting of public and private sector leaders to address current issues in government IT. The North Carolina Department of Information Technology is a partner in the annual event.

State Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, Rep. Jason Saine, Sen. Jeff Tarte and DIT Secretary Eric Boyette participated in the “Technology and Public Policy” panel moderated by Dr. Shannon Tufts, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Government and the director of the UNC Center for Public Technology.

Drawing attention to information technology issues is often difficult, Tarte said. Most people are focused on education, health and transportation issues. He estimated the state spends about $2 billion a year on information technology.

The General Assembly recently became one of a handful of states to establish a Technology Caucus. The caucus has members from the House of Representatives and the state Senate and four chairs, one from each party in each chamber.

“Tech is agnostic,” Saine said. “We don’t want to be last and we would love to be first. People want to know that we’re innovating, that we’re finding efficiencies.”

Chaudhuri, a Democrat, said shortly after he was elected he met with every Republican senator to find areas where they shared common ground. Technology is an area of shared interest, even though many legislators rely on their technology-savvy colleagues to serve as translators and advocates.

This year’s Digital Government Summit also featured discussions of customer experience, artificial intelligence, data sharing, cloud governance, and innovation, as well as other topics. The conference concluded Thursday.