Federal agencies are rushing into AI without cleaning house first
A maintenance worker pushes a cleaning cart through the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on September 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
ByTori Reddy Dodla
May 18, 2026 05:20 PM ET
COMMENTARY | The agencies that prepare their digital house first will get the productivity gains.
In 2024, while serving as Chief of Digital Resource Management at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Veterans Benefits Administration, I delivered a brief in a Microsoft Federal series on preparing Microsoft 365 for AI-driven knowledge management. I knew Microsoft 365 Copilot was about to land in federal tenants, and I wanted government leaders to understand that the readiness conversation had to begin with security and knowledge management, not productivity features.
Two years later, my concerns have only deepened. Federal agencies and their contractor partners are racing to deploy Copilot and similar generative AI assistants while sitting...
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