GrantSolutions’ Director of Innovation, Julius Chang, recently participated in a Public Forum on accelerating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the public sector, sponsored by the Data Coalition. This forum featured leaders from industry, academia, non-profits, state and local governments, and the general public who were invited to share perspectives and hear recommendations for how to best use AI in public sector regulation.
The national policy framework for accelerating the use of AI research and adoption in government has advanced rapidly in recent years: Congress passed the National AI Initiative Act and the AI in Government Act, and the Biden Administration launched the National AI Research Resource Task Force, among other actions. These policy actions demonstrate a firm belief from Congress and the White House that AI and machine learning hold tremendous potential for improving how the government delivers serves the American people.
Anil Chaudry, the Director of Federal AI Implementation from the General Services Administration (GSA), spoke about how establishing partnerships across the government is essential to providing excellent service. He explained that data is out there, we just need to use the lessons learned from government agencies who have done case studies to increase knowledge sharing and decrease the time needed to deliver information.
Alexis Bonnell, an Emerging Technologies leader from Google, emphasized that data is about people. Data is about people, and it drives evidence which in turn drives change. With so much change on the horizon, we need to find ways to use the data we have to adapt. To really lean into the change, organizations need to embrace data-driven decisions, build flexible systems (so we are no longer creating the next legacy system), default to transparency, and value curiosity.
Julius then spoke about how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is especially focused on modernizing its systems. HHS has implemented initiatives across its agencies which utilize the latest AI technologies to streamline processes and guard against unwanted security breaches.
A great example of this is GrantSolutions’ risk management tool, Recipient Data Insights, which helps Federal agencies to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse to safeguard Federal investments by automating the collection of data from multiple sources. Machine learning is used to analyze large datasets, detect patterns, and predict outcomes that inform grant-making decision processes.
Julius also pointed to the Non-Competing Continuation (NCC) FasTrack as another example of how GrantSolutions uses AI to apply algorithms to identify and analyze patterns in data with the goal of reducing processing time. This allows grant money to be awarded faster and more efficiently by leveraging past performance and risk management tools.
Modernizing Federal government systems to protect valuable data continues to be a major priority of the Biden administration. AI tools are increasingly being used to upgrade Federal systems by streamlining and automating business processes. GrantSolutions is glad to be at the forefront of these critical technological advancements.
