DOT’s motor safety division stays clear of AI chatbot allure

Despite immense hype around artificial intelligence and mounting pressure to adopt, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has other priorities, according to the top IT official at the Department of Transportation division.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is executing a substantial modernization project, in which it plans to streamline a sprawling 60-application environment into a much more consolidated seven-platform spread.

“We haven’t paid much attention to the chatbot boom that we are seeing all over the place,” Ankur Saini, chief product and technology officer at DOT, said during a discussion at a FedScoop-produced MongoDB event Thursday. “We’ve been very deliberate about saying no.”

While AI chatbots present a path to an “easy win,” Saini said the DOT division’s focus is on modernization. 

The project is expected to take several years, extending into 2028 or possibly 2029. But progress is already palpable. 

“We’ve made significant progress,” Saini told FedScoop on the sidelines of the event. “None of the platforms are vaporware. All seven of the platforms are in some stage of development.”

Teams have built out an inspection platform to include investigative capabilities and crash reporting, aiming for the platform to be a one-stop shop for safety work. By next summer, the goal is for teams to fully complete the platform, which will end up consolidating nearly 20 applications. 

Another seven or eight applications are being streamlined into a new registration platform that will launch to carriers “very shortly this year,” according to the technology leader. 

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will likely be getting some extra hands to help reach its goals in the coming weeks, thanks to its participation in Tech Force. The governmentwide hiring program aims to place candidates from the private sector into tech roles across agencies.

A DOT spokesperson told FedScoop on Wednesday that the agency has received initial certificates of eligible candidates. “Their applications are under review,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We plan to make initial selections this month.”

Saini said he anticipates the Tech Force participants will help with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s modernization project, as well as other technology initiatives throughout the agency. 

While AI chatbots aren’t high on the priority list for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the DOT division has high hopes for what AI technologies can do to prevent fraud. 

“The vision from the CIO has been, we can use all the help we can get,” Saini said of the hiring initiative.