After months of anticipation, it’s official: the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been established.
On Monday 20 January, one of the dozens of executive orders signed by United States President Donald Trump officially brought DOGE into the White House. The shape it has taken differs from that laid out in the run-up to the inauguration.
Few would have expected a day-one executive order to concern the US Digital Service (USDS). Established by Obama in 2014, the department has focused on enhancing digital capabilities in the federal government. Now, it has officially become the US DOGE Service (so the same USDS acronym applies). In a shift from initial DOGE proposals, the new USDS will focus on modernising government technology to enhance productivity and effectiveness.
This is a good thing.
The executive order is short on details, including on what will become of the old USDS structure and mandate. But it does offer some clarity on priorities, including an effort to address agency interoperability – which we believe to be the backbone of a connected digital government. It is also encouraging to see the proposal for balanced teams, combining legal and tech expertise in every agency.
The administrator for the reorganised USDS is yet to be announced, but the post holder will now report directly to the White House Chief of Staff. This job will be critical to the effort’s success and should be filled by a tech expert with a proven track record of driving transformational change and a forward-thinking attitude to the role of new technologies in the public sector.
Technology holds the power to transform government and allow it to provide services more effectively and efficiently. The new USDS creates an opportunity for the US administration to accomplish this.
Yet, reimagining the state in the age of artificial intelligence calls for greater ambition. Every administration holds the power to revolutionise how government serves the people, and this one is no exception.
Here are five things we hope to see the new USDS do:
1. Win the Talent Race
People are at the heart of making government work. Without investing in and empowering people, even the best tools and strategies will fall short.
Much of the early discussions around DOGE focused on federal headcount, and several of the early executive orders of the new administration addressed personnel decisions – including implementing hiring freezes and imposing restrictions on remote work. But to accomplish its objectives, the USDS will need more talent, not less. In particular, there is a need for more technology expertise: more senior engineers and AI experts, more product managers, more user experience and front-end designers.
To staff the department appropriately, the USDS must focus on bringing the US’s best and brightest into government roles. This should involve reassessing pay bands and building on the previous administrations’ “tour of duty” efforts with new programmes to streamline the tech-to-government pathway. Attracting talent from the US tech sector will be challenging, but investing in strong in-house teams and fostering a culture of meritocracy, empowerment and innovation can help close the gap.
2. Replace Red Tape With 21st-Century Processes
It is easy to be captivated by the allure of technology while overlooking the fundamentals. Too narrow a focus on tech at the expense of the underlying processes will just end up moving a broken system online.
There are many aspects of the US government that are painfully bureaucratic, slow, risk averse and overcomplicated. These systems suffocate innovation – and innovators. While some rules and regulations are necessary, the current web of red tape would benefit from an urgent re-evaluation.
The government’s approach to scoping and building solutions needs modernisation, too. The USDS should lead efforts to translate private-sector best practice to the realities of government, emphasising practices like agile and lean product development, co-design and co-development, and pilot-test-iterate-scale models.
3. Embrace the AI Revolution
AI is already ushering in new revolutions in health, education and public services. It is cutting costs, improving productivity and helping make smarter decisions by automating routine tasks, reducing fraud and waste, and improving the accuracy of government service delivery. In the UK, our analysis suggests the public sector stands to gain as much as £40 billion a year, or up to a 20-fold return on investment, from embracing AI in the public sector.
The possibilities are massive. Yet AI is entirely absent from the executive order establishing the new USDS when it should in fact be at the centre of the department’s efforts. It has a wide range of applications to the stated USDS priorities, and the department has the opportunity to demonstrate in practice how new AI systems can transform the way the government operates and improve how Americans experience it. This could include experimenting with cutting-edge AI applications such as proactive services, personalised AI agents and scenario modelling for policy design.
4. Change the Way Government Buys, Builds and Deploys Software
Procurement is the front door through which technology enters government, yet it remains inefficient and costly. Procuring AI is more complex than procuring other types of technology, as advances are happening faster than governments can adapt.
By working with likeminded partners across government such as the Department of Homeland Security’s Procurement Innovation Lab, the USDS can spearhead efforts to transform how government buys, builds and deploys software and thus realise huge savings.
The USDS should establish and host an Advanced Procurement Agency (APA) to accelerate the adoption of new and emerging technologies in government. This incubator-style lab would leverage innovative procurement techniques and build technical expertise to ensure smart technology purchasing. The APA could test and trial new technologies using synthetic government environments to demo products before committing money.
There are already bipartisan efforts to support this transformation, including the FIT Procurement Act introduced last year.
5. Make Government More Efficient and Better for the American People
Focusing on the user is not only the right thing to do, but it is effective. Most Americans don’t want to deal with manual processes and paperwork to access government services. People want the convenience they experience in the private sector.
The USDS can deliver that. Congress has already taken the positive step of passing the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act. By putting users at the centre of this modernisation process, the new administration can rewrite the playbook on what a modern government looks like and how it delivers on the needs of its people – all while addressing the ever-growing mistrust of Americans towards their government.
Simpler Government Is Better Government
Delivering good public services is good politics. The newly formed USDS has a huge opportunity to transform how government serves the American people. To do so will require proactive engagement with novel technologies, skillsets and processes from the outset and throughout. The USDS can deliver faster, simpler, more user-friendly government services.