Enabling AI faster should be the federal government’s focus
Federal agencies aren’t deciding whether to use artificial intelligence — they’re deciding how quickly they can put it to work safely.
AI is already embedded in the tools federal employees use every day, from productivity suites and collaboration platforms to case management systems, search engines and enterprise applications. New AI capabilities are arriving constantly, and employees are finding new ways to use them to summarize information, analyze data, draft documents, conduct research and accelerate decisions.
The opportunity now is to move faster.
That means giving federal employees access to the AI capabilities they need without forcing agencies to evaluate and deploy every new model or application one at a time.
The future of federal AI will never be defined by a single model. It will be multimodel.
Different models will excel at different tasks. Some will be better at reasoning. Others will be optimized for speed, cost, coding, analysis or specific mission requirements. As those models continue to evolve, federal employees should be able to use the right AI for the job rather than wait for an organization to select one model as the answer.
But enabling that kind of flexibility introduces a practical challenge: Security cannot become the bottleneck.
Consider a contracting officer using AI to summarize a 600-page solicitation, an analyst comparing reports across multiple cloud applications, or a program manager using an AI assistant to draft acquisition documents. These activities can happen within the applications employees already use and through the browser where much of federal work takes place.
The goal should not be to slow those interactions down; it should be to enable them safely at a faster pace.
Agencies need the ability to utilize AI across different models, applications and workflows while protecting the information employees are working with. They need security that can keep pace rather than requiring AI adoption to move at the pace of traditional security reviews.
That requires a novel approach.
Instead of treating every new AI capability as a standalone technology that must be evaluated before employees can use it, agencies can enable AI where work is already happening: in the browser.
The browser is the gateway to modern federal work. Employees use it to access cloud applications, collaborate with partners, conduct research, process acquisitions, manage cases and interact with AI. That makes it a natural place to enable secure access to a rapidly changing AI ecosystem.
With the right security layer in place, agencies can give employees greater freedom to use multiple AI models while applying protections based on the content and context of the interaction. Sensitive information can be protected before it is submitted to an unauthorized service. Access can be differentiated based on the user, device, mission or type of information involved. And employees can continue using the AI capabilities that make them more productive without having to navigate a new security process every time the technology changes. In fact, because it’s a browser, they’ll never even need training.
This is what safe AI enablement should look like: more access, more choice and more speed, with security built in.
Federal agencies cannot afford to wait for the AI landscape to stabilize. It never will. New models, agents and AI capabilities will continue to emerge, and employees will continue to find ways to put them to work.
The agencies that benefit most will be the ones that can enable that experimentation and adoption quickly and safely.
The next phase of federal AI adoption isn’t about choosing a winner among competing models. It’s about giving employees the ability to use the best models and AI capabilities for the job — and making it safe to do so.
Federal AI doesn’t need more friction. It needs more enablement.
And the faster agencies can securely enable it, the faster they can turn AI’s potential into mission impact.
Scott Montgomery is vice president for federal at Island.
