How AI agents are poised to improve government services

The White House estimates $140 billion in government benefits go unclaimed yearly — often because constituents find it too difficult to navigate complex systems. However, new research suggests that AI-powered agents could help reverse that trend by assisting Americans in accessing benefits and services. In a recent FedScoop podcast, Salesforce Executive Vice President for Global Public Sector Paul Tatum outlined how these emerging technologies are set to modernize government work.

According to the Salesforce survey of over 1,000 individuals, 87% said they’d welcome AI assistance when navigating government processes. “That level of public openness was much higher than expected,” says Tatum. “People are already using AI tools in their daily lives, and they’re ready for government to catch up.”

Unlike traditional chatbots, Tatum explained, AI agents —like Salesforce’s new Agentforce for Public Sector — can reason, ask contextual questions and offer nuanced responses. “What’s super exciting is that it’s bringing value to both the constituent on the external side of government, interfacing with government, but equally bringing huge value on the inside of government for those government employees that can use that agent assistant alongside to help them,” he says.

Tatum suggested that government IT professionals begin experimenting with internal use cases, such as claims review or document verification, where agents can assist but not replace human oversight. “Think of them as digital coworkers,” he says.

Security and privacy remain paramount, Tatum added. Salesforce’s tools include a dedicated “AI trust layer” that allows agencies to manage access, mask sensitive data and meet federal compliance like FedRAMP. “We’re not training our agents on the public internet,” he says. “We protect customer data, and we keep it inside the boundary of our platform and within their organization.”

With recent executive orders and memos encouraging federal agencies to lean into AI adoption to improve services, Tatum sees this as a critical moment. “Look for those nice internal use cases to test it, let your employees play with it,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to say, ‘How do we start to blend digital labor from agentic AI and human labor to bring the very best of government forward into the future?’”

Listen to the full podcast conversation here. And learn more about how AI agents are set to revolutionize government work.