The General Services Administration is working to save and automate one million hours of workload across the agency as part of its Eliminate, Optimize and Automate \u2014 or EOA \u2014 playbook.<\/p>\n
GSA Deputy Administrator Michael Lynch said the effort aims to use artificial intelligence and intelligent automation to handle \u201crepetitive, manual workflows,\u201d allowing its workforce to redirect their time toward serving customer\u00a0agencies, improving procurement outcomes and pursuing other mission-critical services. Early into 2026, Lynch said the agency is almost halfway toward achieving its moonshot goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have about 400,000 hours that are currently identified of ways that we can \u2014 not replace people \u2014 but remove that non-high-value added time and replace it by putting people on more high-value opportunities within the agency,\u201d Lynch said April 14 at the OpenText Government Summit<\/a> in Washington, D.C. \u201cAnd that really goes to address some of the workforce challenges we\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n Lynch added that GSA, like most agencies across government, lost headcount over the past year, but he asserted the leaner setup hasn\u2019t slowed operations.<\/p>\n In 2025, the agency took on a centralized role<\/a> in federal acquisition and led a massive overhaul<\/a> of the process; became a key cog in the Trump administration\u2019s AI Action Plan through the launch of USAI.gov<\/a>; and negotiated more than two dozen deals with tech companies, saving partner agencies more than $1 billion on software through its OneGov program, according to Lynch.<\/p>\n Still, the agency is looking at more ways to drive innovation, foster collaboration and develop future leaders within its ranks \u2014 while tackling some of the agency\u2019s toughest problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n Called GSA Labs, the new program seeks a few dozen high-performing early-to-mid-career employees within the agency who will be placed into small, cross-functional teams with executive sponsorship to tackle those problems.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did a call to action for all of our senior leaders to say, \u2018What are the problems that exist within automation technology, workflows and things that you want to dedicate resources to, that you just don’t have the staff to do it?\u2019\u201d Lynch said. \u201cAnd then we put out a call to our workforce to say, \u2018Hey, if you\u2019re kind of mid-career talent, would you be interested in doing a second job in addition to your day job \u2014 not a second pay job \u2014 but you know, be part of this program?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Lynch said the response was \u201camazing,\u201d totaling more than 300 internal applicants who were narrowed to an initial cohort of 30 GSA staff to address five problem statements with a goal of \u201ctrying to create interoperable systems and processes.”<\/p>\n He noted GSA Labs\u2019 work is largely internal now, but \u201ccould be a scalable program in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have 30 individuals from GSA that are going to be almost our internal McKinsey consulting group that\u2019s going to come in and help us solve these problems in partnership with leaders,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cAnd then the hope would be that further develops our workforce, develops great outcomes for our agency. And then where the program goes in year two and beyond is a bit up in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n Maturation of OneGov<\/p>\n Far from a one-hit wonder<\/a>, Lynch said to expect a maturation of GSA\u2019s OneGov effort, which netted more than two dozen discounted deals for agencies from AI and tech software firms, including Google Public Sector<\/a>, Adobe<\/a>, Salesforce<\/a>, Elastic<\/a>, Oracle<\/a>, Uber<\/a>, IBM<\/a>, Docusign<\/a>, Amazon Web Services<\/a>, OpenAI<\/a>, Anthropic<\/a> and Box<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of those were relatively short-term deals, and GSA is using feedback from industry and agencies to inform how that program evolves into \u201clonger-term, scalable programs and engagements that are mutually beneficial for both the federal government as well as our industry partners.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOver the next six to nine months, you\u2019ll see a lot more announcements around how those OneGov deals have matured,\u201d\u00a0Lynch said.<\/p>\n