Business Model Innovation

How Should Civilian Agencies Invest in AI?

I believe that civilian agencies should not invest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) but instead
invest in business and technology modernization to support their mission. That would be
my immediate answer without understanding the overall context of the opportunity. I think
we are aware of the potential benefits and the potential risks involved in the introduction
of any new technologies- particularly AI. When the discussion about AI is vague, and
theoretical everything good and bad is possible. To make an investment in any technology
there needs to be context or a framework for the why and the desired outcome. As a
former Federal IT executive, I would try to understand how we as an agency could
accomplish our mission and strategy better through the introduction of technology. An
agency mission provides the framework for a focused discussion that places AI within an
IT and business modernization context. This simple logic applies to cloud, security, and
any other hardware or software technologies that can improve public service. I doubt that
civilian agencies will be making any direct investment in AI. Most of the future investments
in AI will be the same or similar to investments agencies are already making today, with
the private sector, by virtue of the contracts and partnerships they currently have in place.
The AI component will operate in the background, but the benefit will be front and center.
The current commercial competitive landscape bodes well for Federal agencies to
leverage the billions of AI investments. That sleepy data center with AI powered
microchips is suddenly at the forefront of a new digital infrastructure that is enabling both
the public and the government to do things better – much better. The government is a
beneficiary of our amazing private sector innovation. The nature and scope of the federal
investment in AI, therefore, will be a license update to an existing mission critical cloudbased
software tool that is already contributing to the ongoing IT modernization process.
When the commercial provider is ready to deploy an AI based technology (securely) then
the government will be well positioned to understand the context of the opportunity to
improve public service. When I started using “Siri” “Alexa” or “Google Assistant” it wasn’t
because these global leaders sold me on natural language processing (NLP) or AI. I did
not buy the algorithms or computer chips directly. I simply benefited from investments (in
the billions) that these industry leaders made with their thousands of employees and
business partners so that I can ask a piece of hardware device in my home a question
and get an answer within a second. The same applies to government. I think it’s important
for the federal CXO executives and their staff to understand technology within the context
of public service and that there is a clear distinction between investing in AI (or any
technology) and the process of acquiring capabilities to drive internal innovation. In other
words- the Federal government is not in the IT investment or integration business but in
the business of public service.

Avi Bender is the Managing Director of Bender Advisory Services LLC. Avi was formerly the Director of
NTIS US Department of Commerce, the first CTO of the US Census Bureau, and the Director for Enterprise
Architecture at the IRS.