US General Services Administration sets out AI ambitions for 2026 – and war department adopts new AI tool
The US General Services Administration (GSA) has said that its goal this year is to empower agencies to adopt artificial intelligence, remove blockers to AI innovation, and spur related collaboration.
The GSA, whose role is to manage and support the functioning of federal agencies, said in a blog post that it has started testing chatbots that “provide simple answers to common enquiries” about federal programmes. It added that it is also using AI to “help draft market research summaries” and is testing “built-in generative AI functions to increase employee productivity”.
The agency said that AI adoption across government had been hampered by authorisation processes, which had proved consistently slow and costly.
In 2025, actions taken to address this included alterations to a government-wide compliance initiative known as the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), which provides a standardised approach to security assessment and authorisation for cloud computing products and services.
The result was the launch of FedRAMP 20x, described by the government as “a new assessment and authorisation path”.
According to GSA, the deployment of FedRAMP 20x is expected to “eliminate the existing requirement for agency sponsorship of AI cloud provider offerings before entering the FedRAMP authorisation pipeline”.
Government Service Delivery will bring together global digital government leaders to explore how governments can use tech-driven innovation to deliver high-quality public services. The event will be held at Walter E Washington Convention Center, Washington DC on June 10 – 11, 2026. Find out more and register here
Policies expected to emerge from the programme could “streamline AI procurement across federal agencies” and “allow widespread access to critical AI services across government”, GSA said.
“For the public, this means easier access to benefits, answers to questions when you need them and faster relief when disaster strikes,” it added.
GSA also cited US president Donald Trump’s AI Action Plan – published in July last year – which set a goal of allowing agencies to test AI models before purchasing them, at no cost and with no security risks. The government subsequently launched its first shared platform for AI experimentation, known as USAi, in August 2025.
GSA said the platform would “streamline adoption, build smarter infrastructure and coordinate federal action”.
Read more: US state department looking to agentic AI to ‘take action’ for officials, CIO says
Department of War AI tool to help ‘outpace adversaries’
Meanwhile, the US Department of War – previously the Department of Defense – has introduced a new AI tool known as ‘GenAI.mil’.
The tool was described in a statement by the Department of War as “a secure generative AI platform” accessible on “the desktops of all military personnel, civilians and contractors” who work on the department’s non-classified network.
Pete Hegseth, the country’s secretary of war, said that the tool represented “a new era” in which “every member of our workforce can be more efficient and impactful”.
“[GenAI.mil] can help you write documents, ask questions, conduct deep research, format content and unlock new possibilities across your daily workflows,” he explained.
The department said that the AI model on which GenAI.mil functions is a “specialised version of the Google AI tool Gemini, Gemini for Government”, which handles “controlled unclassified information” and that it includes several functions that help prevent information leaks and assure the validity of information.
GenAI.mil prompts users to “double-check everything it provides to ensure accuracy”, and features what the department described as “a green banner at the top of the page [to remind] users of what can and can’t be shared on the site”.
Hegseth said he expected every member of the department to log into, learn how to use, and adopt GenAI.mil in their daily workflows without delay.
“AI should be in your battle rhythm every single day; it should be your teammate. By mastering this tool, we will outpace our adversaries,” he said.
Read more: Trump administration sets guardrails for AI use and acquisition within government agencies
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
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