DOGE leader outlines AI-driven future for federal service delivery

Department of Government Efficiency acting Administrator Amy Gleason teased what’s coming next for the digital front door to government services. 

“Right now, [America.gov] doesn’t give you any data that comes from outside the government. But the next step is an authenticated experience,” Gleason said at an event Thursday hosted by the Digital Services Coalition. “Then, the next step is an artificial intelligence agent [that is] actually going to do work for you, and you’ll have a dashboard, so you actually know what’s happening.”  

Gleason said the launch of America.gov is the next phase to modernizing service delivery in the age of artificial intelligence. 

Gleason added there could be a future where AI chatbots replace individual agency websites. She said the government needs to continuously consider the end user to avoid repeating history. Gleason, who worked for the U.S. Digital Service during the Obama administration, warned that the growth of technology is significantly quicker than a decade ago. 

“USDS made healthcare.gov better and we realized that most government services were actually quite bad, and we needed to modernize them. We needed modern tech. We needed modern processes,” Gleason said. “But now it’s starting to feel like 2014 again … we have to keep trying to look at this in a different way.” 

Gleason also acknowledged the uphill battles agencies face in a new landscape with less talent and growing security concerns related to AI. 

“The agencies are really struggling to implement. They don’t have enough tech talent; they’re trying to procure things; and they’re trying to figure out, how do they adapt, make it secure, just how do they make this work,” said Gleason. “Tools are hard to get in government. Agencies need partners that are thinking ahead. We need be focused because we can’t just chase every shiny object that comes around.” 

Mind the gap

The gap between digital government services and their industry counterparts is growing wider. Gleason said agencies are trying to keep up, however new data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows how the past year of operational and workforce changes impacted the federal agencies to deliver on their missions. ACSI’s annual Federal Government Study found that overall satisfaction with government services fell by 2.6 percent this past year. 

The Department of Health and Human Services experienced the largest decrease in satisfaction, falling 4% from 2025 to 2026. The study also found that digital-first service delivery continues to resonate with citizens when agencies invest in it. 

Erica Evans, the director of operations at USDS, said technology will continue to change, but as agencies prioritize and understand human-centered design, they risk falling farther behind in their modernization goals. Evans said many government processes are organized around software delivery cycles, which are still based on a waterfall model.  

“Many people are still so accustomed to the processes of government forcing you into waterfall thinking. It’s easy to pay lip service to product thinking and human-centered design, but it’s hard to put those into practice,” said Evans.  

Modernizing people, process, technology together

Andi Fisher-Colwill, director of business and administrative services and acting deputy CIO for policy and business management at the Commerce Department, said the work to modernize digital services isn’t over when websites are overhauled or legacy systems are replaced. The technology needs to connect the digital breadcrumbs of across disparate systems to reduce administrative burden.

“We need to flatten out our procurement and budget process to allow for continuous improvement, to allow development and maintenance,” said Fisher-Colwill. “It’s not two separate phases of developing and delivering a product, it’s a continuous improvement cycle. We need to ensure that we are supporting government adoption and change management.” 

Gleason added that not every procurement process will have the same answer. For one agency, building the tools may be the best course while the opposite might be true for another agency. Gleason said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stood up the Office of Health Technology and Products for that purpose.  

“The team can’t build everything, but they can at least be the core team that understands what needs to happen and manages the process,” said Gleason.  

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