Artificial intelligence proves major time savings for federal employees

The phrase "artificial intelligence" can stir up a lot of panic at some federal agencies, and can give rise to the idea of intelligent machines putting some employees out of work. However, some federal agencies are embracing the idea of artificial intelligence, and in those test cases, adopting machine learning comes down to a few key strategies like starting small and managing expectations. While AI isn't a panacea for every big-data problem in government, agency leaders say they see value in using machine learning to handle the most tedious aspects of handling data, which frees up human operators to address more mission-critical issues. "Artificial intelligence is an imperative. It's not something that's nice to have, or something that we should consider at some point," Teresa Smetzer, the director of digital futures at the Central Intelligence Agency said Tuesday during an event sponsored by Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for the Business of Government.