Keith Nakasone GSA’s Deputy Commissioner for Acquisition Operations in the Office of Information Technology https://www.gsa.gov, said, “GSA realizes the importance of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand acquisition needs. He appeared before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s, Subcommittee on Information Technology this past March to detail some of the ongoing work in AI at GSA.
He focused part of his testimony on GSA’s Emerging Citizen Technology Office (ECTO) https://emerging.digital.gov as he reported, “ECTO is helping to support and coordinate government-wide development of AI programs by seeking active participation from both the public and private sectors.”
He told the Subcommittee, “GSA uses an open source repository of potential use cases, programs, and resources for AI that are used in the Federal government. This information is included in GSA’s “Emerging Citizen Technology Atlas.”
The Atlas includes action items from monthly inter-agency meetings to help both the public and private sectors track the status of GSA’s AI initiatives. Soon, the Atlas will include findings from the monthly “New Tech 10” which is designed to provide an evolving snapshot of federal agencies programs and needs.
Nakasone also reports that after a natural disaster, more requests are received through digital services then can be processed by staff. Therefore, it is necessary for GSA to modernize contact centers with the newest technologies so teams can use better ways to help decision-making and operations in emergencies.
Nakasone told the Subcommittee, “GSA is going to be launching a new shared resource on https://emerging.digital.gov to be called “Emerging Technology Pathways to Acquisition”. This resource will provide transparency on the ways agencies can use AI services to determine the need for specific products and services.