Generative AI use is ‘escalating rapidly’ in federal agencies, GAO finds
Federal agencies are increasingly turning to generative artificial intelligence to further their missions, according to a new watchdog report that found use cases of the emerging technology jumping by ninefold in a selection of nearly a dozen agencies last year.
In a report published Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office said generative AI use cases across a group of 11 federal agencies increased from 32 to 282 cases from 2023 to 2024, per an analysis of those agencies’ inventories.
The GAO laid out several ways these agencies harnessed generative AI last year, stating the technology can “improve written communications, information access efficiency, and program status tracking.”
Examples included the Department of Veterans Affairs using automation for medical imaging processing in veterans’ diagnostic services, along with the Department of Health and Human Services’ initiative to extract information from publications regarding the containment of the poliovirus.
HHS reported the largest jump out of the 11 agencies, going from seven generative AI use cases in 2023 to 116 in 2024, according to the report. The Department of Homeland Security had the second-largest uptick, going from five to 36 uses between 2023 and last year.
The report showed that even agencies that reported few to no use cases in 2023 increased their use the following year. For example, the VA, State Department and Commerce Department each went from one use case in 2023 to 27, 18, and 17, respectively.
The agencies reported several potential benefits from their use of generative AI and the GAO concluded that agencies are primarily using generative AI for internal agency operations, including streamlining workflows and communications.
The GAO said agencies also intend to or already are integrating generative AI into government services through tools like chatbots and virtual assistants for the public. The watchdog further found that agencies in the health and medical field are using generative AI for research and analysis of complex medical data.
Still, some agency officials expressed challenges with generative AI, including complying with existing federal policies and maintaining technical resources and budget, the report said.
The annual AI inventory process was first established by an executive order in December 2020, which directed federal agencies to maintain inventories of their unclassified, nonsensitive current and planned uses of AI.
Across the 11 agencies analyzed by the GAO, the number of reported AI use cases went from 571 to 1,110 in 2024, the report said.
Last year also marked the first year a consolidated list was available on GitHub, a code storage and management platform, though it did not differentiate which cases were generative AI.
FedScoop previously reported the 2024 consolidated inventory listed on the Office of Management and Budget’s GitHub showed 1,757 public AI uses across 37 federal agencies. The inventory was updated earlier this year, increasing the total by about 370 uses.
