5 Takeaways from the 2026 Federal Tech Leaders Summit

Successful modernization requires government to transform how it recruits talent, designs systems and delivers capabilities to the users. As a new generation of “digital natives” enters military service, the department is aligning modernization efforts with user expectations and mission needs.

War Department CIO Kirsten Davies highlighted the department’s shift toward skills-based hiring, apprenticeship programs and accelerated hiring pathways designed to attract and retain talent while supporting faster delivery of capabilities to warfighters as part of her new four pillar modernization strategy.

“When we have digital natives … they want to see great user interface, they want to be able to interact with touch screens, these things that we take for granted in industry. It isn’t necessarily true that in the Department of War and we’re getting after that at a rapid pace,” she said.

Officials said modernization is increasingly being judged by mission outcomes and returns on investment rather than technology upgrades alone.

General Services Administration Technology Modernization Fund Acting Director Jessie Posilkin pointed to a Department of Homeland Security cloud modernization project that generated $30 million in annual savings from a $15 million investment while reducing call center inquiries by 75% and accelerating workflows by 25%.

“The proposals we’re evaluating are value-proposition driven. We want to see what services you’re going to improve as a result of this funding,” she said.

The Transportation Department is building a digital transportation network that uses shared data and AI-enabled analysis to improve safety, reduce congestion and create a more connected national travel system.

“We’re trying to create an open-source infrastructure on the backend to enable interoperability across states. Hopefully that will lead into a national framework,” Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology Seval Oz said.

Oz said the effort demonstrates how AI can help agencies accelerate planning, break down data silos and support large-scale modernization initiatives with benefits extending beyond transportation to national security and economic resilience.

Cyber leaders warned that the rapid adoption of AI is creating a new class of cybersecurity challenges as agencies manage growing numbers of AI agents, service accounts and other non-human identities.

“If you don’t know your entire attack surface of these non-human identities, you’re going to fail very fast,” said Austin Clark, enterprise security architect at the Transportation Department.

Leaders emphasized that speed is becoming a security advantage. Agencies are building environments that can identify threats faster, limit lateral movement and accelerate secure software delivery. The goal is maintaining resilience as AI reshapes both the threat landscape and the tools available to defenders.

Agencies are leveraging AI to accelerate software development, automate administrative tasks and improve access to government data, but leaders said accountability and decision-making must remain with people.

Officials highlighted the importance of transparency, validation and workforce training as AI adoption scales.

“Decision-makers still own the decision space. They still own the responsibility, the authority and the context,” said Brian Campo, chief data and AI officer at the Coast Guard.