Government digital services should help people complete the tasks that brought them to an agency in the first place, Amy Gleason, administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service, said Nov. 5, outlining a future in which artificial intelligence (AI) agents navigate systems, submit information, and follow up on users’ behalf.
Speaking at the Digital Services Coalition’s Great Digital Debate event in Washington, D.C., Gleason said that vision requires agencies to rethink how they design and buy services, establish what agents are authorized to do, and build the technical expertise to oversee the work.
Gleason, who also serves as deputy administrator and chief product officer in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Office of Health Technology and Products, framed the challenge around the result a person needs.
“Is the chatbot trying to answer refund questions, or is it trying to get a valid refund processed?” she asked.
Her own effort to recover incorrectly withheld District of Columbia taxes illustrated the distinction. After months of searching the city’s website and submitting requests, Gleason said she tried an AI agent. The agent discovered her refund was pending a utility bill to verify her residence.
The agent requested the document, uploaded it, and followed up with the city by phone, Gleason said. She had not confirmed that the refund would arrive, but the experience showed how technology could take on the administrative work for people seeking information or using government services.
Agencies prepare for new ways to access services
Gleason pointed to America.gov as one approach to that future. America.gov launched Sept. 29 as a single point of entry for trusted federal information. The White House said transactions such as passport renewal and Medicare enrollment will be added as agencies integrate their services.
An authenticated experience, the ability to perform work for users, and a dashboard showing progress will be subsequent steps for America.gov, Gleason said.
For agencies, Gleason said, America.gov raises questions about where to invest: their own websites, the connections that allow other systems to use their services, or both. People may approach government through America.gov, an agency website, or an AI assistant they already use.
Agencies need to prepare for those different routes and “try to be adaptable,” she said.
The expanding role of agents creates a trust problem, however: A system needs to know both who a person is and whether an agent has permission to act for that person, Gleason noted.
She questioned how users could limit an agent’s authority, revoke access, and track which tools they had authorized. Giving an agent the user’s login to a site can give it the same access as the person, even when the person wants it to perform only a few tasks, she observed.
Agencies need tools and expertise to deliver
Gleason described a gap between the agents she uses personally and the tools available at work. At CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services, browser-based models help with document comparisons and analysis, but employees lack agent capabilities, she noted.
“I think getting access to the model is one step, but connecting it to where the work happens is where we’re really going to see the change,” she said.
Security reviews, procurement decisions, shortages of technical talent, and rapidly evolving technology all complicate implementation, she said.
Technology uncertainty should shape contracts, Gleason said. Procurements need to focus on the desired outcome and allow teams to adapt when a better way to achieve it emerges. Performance measures should examine whether a service completes real tasks, handles exceptions, and recognizes when to escalate to a human.
Government also needs employees who understand what contractors are delivering. Gleason described CMS’s Office of Health Technology and Products as a way to establish that internal capability. The team does not need to build everything itself, she said, but it needs technical capability to oversee the work.
She called for technical partners to work alongside agency teams, learn their missions, and leave them able to own the services being built. Documenting decisions and their reasoning will help future teams determine when an earlier approach needs to change, Gleason said.