Agencies Use AI to Boost Efficiency, Cybersecurity Under White House Mandates

Federal agencies are prioritizing AI to boost operational efficiency and improve cybersecurity while cutting unnecessary spending in response to the recent presidential directives like Office of Management and Budget’s two April AI memos that outline how government should approach AI acquisition and accelerate AI innovation. As agencies navigate tightening budgets and rising expectations, the push to achieve better outcomes at lower costs has become a central focus across government operations, and emerging tech is one way to enable success.

DLA Announces Launch of AI Chatbot

The Defense Logistics Agency’s (DLA) CIO, Addaryl Roberts, said during a May 1 event that the agency plans to release an AI chatbot later this year to keep pace with the administration’s AI memos and orders.

“We established an AI Center of Excellence last summer, and I hired a chief AI officer, and I think that aligns with the administration’s guidance in terms of AI enablement,” said Roberts. “We want to make sure we govern correctly, so we’re maintaining an inventory of use cases.”

Following DLA’s first-ever hackathon in 2024, Roberts said nearly 200 use cases were submitted to the agency. He noted agentic AI will be a game changer for customer service and supply chain management.

DLA is leveraging agentic AI to combine roughly 24 systems to create chatbots to reduce wait times and improve customer experience. DLA is continuing to review the use case inventory to ensure that selected tools are chosen thoughtfully, based on need, purpose and effectiveness.

“We’re not looking at the technology itself. We’re really saying, let’s define the problems our agencies are looking to solve, and through that life cycle management of technology, where is AI applicable? Where is automation applicable?” said Roberts.

Using AI to Boost Cybersecurity

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) Center for Enhanced Cybersecurity Director Jennifer Franks said agencies have adopted AI tools to improve proactive monitoring and reduce employee burnout. GAO has noticed an increase in attacks, roughly 5,000 more a day in 2025 than in 2024, and emerging AI tools and strong zero-trust practices will enable agencies to prepare for the future threat landscape.

“That really is helpful, not to remove the human, but a human cannot pick up on as many of the continuous monitoring vulnerabilities that we’re seeing every single day,” said Roberts.

Additionally, GAO is investigating how identity credential access management (ICAM) procedures and authentication services can ensure that bad actors can be identified quickly.

“We’re working on strengthening the micro segmentation areas so we can catch that malicious actor and quarantine them while you’re still continuing on with your business all day, every day,” said Franks.

GAO is bolstering partnerships as it continues to analyze emerging tech’s impact for cybersecurity. The agency follows along with alerts from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with industry alerts, to boost awareness of the digital landscape and how threats evolve at other organizations.

“We’re always doing our due diligence to understand the full landscape and how it’s impacting the whole approach and the visibility of the organization, because that is critically important, that the American people believe in what it is we’re doing and in making sure that we’re safeguarding their data on the information systems,” said Franks.