The federal government has set a high bar for delivering benefits and services to the public, which makes turning to artificial intelligence agents to keep up with its growing workload a necessity.
Agencies are driven by rapid changes in technology and overwhelming public support for AI solutions as a way to raise trust in public government, said Jamison Braun, vice president of strategy and business development for Salesforce.
“We talk about demanding more from our governments. It’s the shrinking of not wanting to wait,” Braun said during Federal News Network’s AI and Data Exchange.
The public expects the same seamless, real-time service from the government as it receives from many private-sector companies.
“AI agents and digital labor enable government services to operate 24×7, ensuring always-on support for citizens and faster, more efficient service delivery,” Braun said. “This is a game-changer — removing bottlenecks, increasing accessibility and allowing agencies to focus on higher-value work that requires human judgment.”
Enhancing the citizen experience with AI agents
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services and IRS are examples of agencies that could benefit from deploying digital agents in their call centers.
“Anywhere citizens are seeking resolutions from government agencies, AI agents can dramatically improve speed and accuracy in delivering the answers they need,” Braun said. “Imagine eliminating long wait times on the phone simply because there aren’t enough civil servants available. AI can provide instant responses, allowing people to get on with their lives instead of waiting in line.”
Braun said AI agents can also ensure agencies have seamless access to data, ensuring greater efficiency.
“Governments are replete with having stove-piped legacy mainframes and infrastructure that doesn’t allow them to communicate in a streamlined fashion. We have to be able to unlock the data,” he said. “That’s where agents are super successful. They can go in and actually uncover areas where you may not even know that authoritative data resides.”
Managing change across the workforce
As agencies navigate modernization, they must also address change management with their employees.
“We have six generations present in the workforce, everywhere from the brand-new college graduates to the people who are post-service from the Vietnam era. We’ve got these six generations that we’re dealing with, all that have different technical adoption rates,” Braun said.
This range of experiences across the workforce requires a thoughtful approach to training and implementing new tools, he said. But AI tools can help agencies keep up with a rapidly changing world, Braun added.
“Every time there’s an administration change, or there are political appointments or there’s even just a shift in a new organization, there’s going to be new regulations, directives and instructions. And normally, those take a long time to trickle down through an individual organization,” he pointed out. “The first thing that we can really leverage is cutting through the complexity associated with that type of doctrine and presenting it in a way that makes sense for the end user.”
Braun also highlighted the importance of reducing friction — the obstacles employees face when trying to access necessary information. AI can simplify internal processes, ensuring that employees spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on meaningful work.
Given the rapid evolution of technologies, Braun also recommended that agencies follow a “buy, don’t build” playbook for AI adoption.
“Don’t DIY your AI. The commercial sector has been successful in delivering these thin work or personal experiences, both at speed and at scale. The world’s largest companies are fully embracing this type of evolution,” he said.
The rise of AI-powered digital labor is transforming government operations. But Braun stressed agencies manage this transformation by using AI tools they can trust.
Embracing digital agents as partners in the mission
“Not only is trust our single most important value, but we couple it with things like transparency and accountability,” he said, adding, “It’s not enough for you to be able to ask a query or generate a prompt and get an answer. We need to constantly validate and even reduce the error variance more and more every single time that that similar type of inquiry or prompt is generated.”
While AI tools are leading to lots of changes across government, Braun said it’s important for federal employees to understand that AI agents are meant to help them do their jobs better not replace their jobs.
“Government workers often worry that digital advancements threaten their jobs, but in reality, AI agents are here to support and enhance the vital work they do,” he said.
“Speaking from four decades in federal service, I can say with confidence that this is a revolution in augmentation, not replacement. Imagine reducing the backlogs that create friction in your organization — whether it’s processing medical forms or managing records — so that when you start your day, the routine tasks are handled, allowing you to focus on the complex cases where your experience, knowledge and judgment have the greatest impact. Digital labor isn’t about replacing people. It’s about empowering agencies to deliver even greater service to the public.”
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