Updated Thu / 2026-10-15 / 1:22 PM CT

State Sandbox explainer: voiceover script (v3.5.0)

Read each numbered part as its own take, with a short pause between parts. About three minutes at a relaxed pace.
Say compact as the noun: COM-pact. ElizaChat is Eliza Chat; Dentacor is den-ta-COR, the stress on the last syllable.

1. The idea waits
Every day, someone in Tennessee has a better way to deliver care, train a worker, or serve a customer. And too often, the idea waits, because the state laws and regulations that govern it were written before it existed.

2. What a sandbox is
A state sandbox gives that idea a way forward. The state grants narrow, temporary relief from a specific regulation or licensing requirement, and the idea launches as a pilot. Real customers. Real results. What works gives lawmakers the evidence to update the regulation or statute for everyone. Every pilot is time-limited and supervised.

3. A real pilot: ElizaChat
Here's a real pilot. About one in eight young people already ask chatbots for mental health advice. In Utah, ElizaChat built one for schools with licensed psychologists: guided conversations, evidence-based coping skills, and a quick hand-off to a licensed clinician when warning signs appear. Utah set aside its therapy licensing requirement for the test, and its work in this area led to the state's first law for mental health chatbots.

4. A second real pilot: Dentacor
A second real pilot: Dentacor, a mobile dental clinic. Utah's dental supervision requirements limited how many patients its hygienists could see. Under the pilot, they can diagnose routine problems on site, and the clinic expects to double its patients with the same staff. Picture a ninety-three-year-old in a Tennessee nursing home. Care that reaches her where she lives can catch a small problem before it becomes a trip, sedation, and a hospital stay.

5. A third real pilot: Doctronic
A third real pilot: Doctronic. It renews routine prescriptions a doctor already wrote, like blood pressure medication, and never controlled substances. After a primary and secondary physician's review, it reached 97 percent agreement. That's impressive, considering the agreement rate between doctors alone is 88 to 95 percent. No serious safety incidents have been reported.

6. Results draw business, and other states
State sandboxes like these draw business. Entrepreneurs and startups are drawn to states that review their regulations with innovation in mind. In Utah, about 60 have already lined up. And it's not just Utah. Arizona opened the first state sandbox in 2018, and Connecticut passed a law this year to plan one, including how it could work across state lines.

7. Tennessee
Tennessee can build its own innovation sandbox, across healthcare, technology, transportation, and more. Good for businesses, nonprofits, patients, and students, in cities and rural communities alike.

8. The compact
And here's the bigger idea. States are starting to work together. Utah put the first invitation in writing, and a compact is forming among states with active sandboxes. Inside a compact, a pilot proven in one state could have a path into the others, instead of starting over, state by state.

9. What it would take
To take a seat, Tennessee would need a sandbox with authority over state licensing and scope-of-practice requirements, the power to join the compact, and shared terms with the other member states. The founding partners shape those standards together.

10. Close
An innovation compact of states is forming. Tennessee can be a founding member.