After deep cuts to the federal workforce under the Trump administration last year, agencies are seeking artificial intelligence tools to make their remaining employees more productive, and continue to hire in a limited capacity to replenish their ranks.<\/p>\n
The General Services Administration, the agency responsible for governmentwide real estate, IT and contracting services, lost nearly 40% of its total workforce since fiscal 2024, according to the latest data from the Office of Personnel Management.<\/p>\n
GSA\u2019s Chief Financial Officer Nimisha Agarwal said at a recent industry conference the agency is looking at AI tools to \u201coptimize our existing workforce in a much smarter manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you start automating some of those repetitive processes, you actually make time for us to perform the kind of work that we can actually do better,\u201d Agarwal said at a Feb. 18 conference hosted by the Association of Government Accountants. \u201cIt allows us to exercise our judgment. It allows us to start thinking about risk management. It allows us to think about what strategic directions we can take. Those are all the things that allow us to outperform. I think it\u2019s important for us to start thinking in that manner, because we certainly have 40% less people than we had prior to last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
]]><\/p>\n
According to data from the Office of Personnel Management<\/a>, more than 386,000 federal employees have left government under the Trump administration \u2014 through a combination of firings, layoffs, retirements and early separation incentives.<\/p>\n Factoring in new hires, the federal workforce saw a net decrease of more than 264,000 positions under this administration.<\/p>\n Amid this downsizing, the Trump administration has rolled out several initiatives to recruit new hires. It rolled out its plans to recruit talent in last year\u2019s Merit Hiring Plan.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n More recently, OPM has been looking to bring about 1,000 technologists into the federal workforce through its Tech Force Program,<\/a> and recruit legal experts through its newly launched Attorney Talent Network<\/a><\/p>\n Despite all these initiatives, Agarwal said GSA can\u2019t solely rely on hiring to meet its mission.<\/p>\n \u201cHiring is not the fastest in the federal government, so hiring cannot be the only mitigation strategy that we depend on. By the time you onboard an employee, and by the time that employee is 100% contributing, that may take a while to get us there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Environmental Protection Agency, which lost nearly a quarter of its employees under the Trump administration, is also looking at AI tools to boost the productivity of its remaining staff.<\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n Gregg Treml, the EPA\u2019s deputy chief financial officer and deputy administrative officer, said the agency is using AI tools \u201cto get more time back for our employees to focus on the core things.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless, there\u2019s never going to be enough time. There\u2019s never going to be enough people. So we need to be leveraging technology to focus the attention of our very talented employees,\u201d Treml said.<\/p>\n Treml said the EPA is focused on upskilling employees and giving them the tools they need to be more efficient.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to give people more time back in the day, and the only way we can do that is by using technology on some of those things that are more repetitive,\u201d he said. \u201cIt does take some resources, but one of the things that I love about the EPA, we\u2019ve never stopped investing in our employees, and we continue to do so. It\u2019s a big push for this administration, and we\u2019re harnessing that, not just on the front-line operations, but also in the support organization.\u201d<\/p>\n Treml said EPA is upskilling its current workforce, and hiring entry-level and mid-career employees to backfill positions as employees retire, \u201csoon we are going to have a workforce that can meet what the agency is asking of us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to build and create that culture that can adapt to whatever is thrown at us \u2014 change in administrations, executive orders, things that are happening in society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The EPA spent much of last year reorganizing its headquarters operations. As part of this agency reorganization, the EPA merged its CFO office with several other administrative offices to create the Office of Finance and Administration, which Treml said is one of the largest headquarters offices.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody at EPA is being asked to do more and sometimes different things \u2014 myself included,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing, I believe, that a finance person can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n By merging the agency\u2019s human resources and finance operations into one office, Treml said the EPA is able to more accurately forecast its payroll costs for its employees.<\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n \u201cThat cannot happen unless you\u2019re head of HR and your budget officers are fully in line and sharing information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n