How Government is Using AI as a Workforce Assistant

Automated tools are increasingly serving as assistants to agency staff, easing their workloads and improving efficiency, officials said Wednesday at GovCIO Media & Research’s Federal IT Efficiency Summit in Reston, Virginia.

Fighting Crime with AI

Law enforcement agencies are using AI to help agents work through complex caseloads. Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Criminal Investigations Group Eric Shen said his organization has several pilot efforts underway to support investigations.

Due to the sensitive nature of the group’s work, Shen spoke at a high level about the initiatives. However, he said one pilot tool functions as an around-the-clock assistant and analyst for agents. AI systems must be trained on relevant subject matter, a process Shen compared to mentoring a new human agent.

“You have to train them up to make sure that they’re going in the right direction, and they’re investigating the right things that we’re asking them to do,” he said.

Shen said the group’s goal is to use AI as a virtual partner that supports human investigators. Certain crimes, particularly financial crimes, require extensive analysis to identify patterns and connections, which is where AI-human collaboration can provide significant value, he added.

“Having an AI and a human component, like an expert, like a data scientist working together. I think that’s the key in really leveraging it and becoming more efficient,” he explained.

Back-Office Management

AI is also making an impact in back-office administrative work. Anna Libkhen, acting CISO with the Bureau of Economic Analysis, noted that her organization uses AI for a variety of administrative jobs, such as document processing, auditing and updating systems.

As an example, Libkhen said she recently reviewed the BEA’s security plan in response to an audit by her agency’s inspector general. The process required her to sift through a 505-page document, locate a specific 48-page section and analyze multiple related documents.

“I would not be able to do that without AI,” she said.

The BEA is also using GitHub Copilot for code generation and test-case development. Libkhen said the platform has helped support IT operations, particularly after recent staffing reductions left teams short-handed. The tool has proven especially useful for coding and debugging software, serving as a constant companion for IT staff.

“Debugging with someone else is empowering, but debugging with somebody who doesn’t get moody, doesn’t get tired, doesn’t get upset because you don’t like their solution, can go to bed when you want it to and can get up whenever you want … I think the power of that assistant who is always there with you no matter what, is very helpful,” she said.

Cybersecurity Concerns

Cybersecurity is another major area where AI is reshaping federal operations. Knox Systems CISO Hemant Baidwan said AI is accelerating the competition between federal security teams and cyber adversaries.

Baidwan, who recently joined Knox after serving as the Department of Homeland Security’s CISO, said attacks that once required teams of highly skilled, well-funded adversaries operating over weeks or months can now be executed by individuals using AI tools in a matter of days.

“You can’t defend against that with just humans sitting [at a terminal] and with legacy monitoring and detections. It doesn’t work,” Baidwan said.