What drives AI-powered transformation at the Department of Transportation

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an agency within the Department of Transportation that regulates trucking, went from an antiquated and untrusted body to one that has triumphed at the CIO100 Symposium & Awards for three consecutive years. “It was an agency without trust, either by internal or external stakeholders, and the technology was forgotten about,” says DOT CIO Pavan Pidugu. “There wasn’t a lot of investment then, so transforming from where we were and how we were perceived, to what we are today is amazing.”

Consolidating on wins year after year is testament to the hard work he and his team have invested, especially considering how cumbersome the federal government can be to update technologies and transform culture. Plus, the primary function at the DOT is to ensure the highest levels of safety, and the responsibility to succeed rests in large part on its technology arm. “Our mission is to reduce the number of large trucks and busses involved in fatalities and crashes,” he says. “So to serve that purpose, if we can leverage modern technology to make safety better, we’re all game. That’s the bigger view of what technology can bring.”

It’s an evolutionary and very fast paced process, but along with finding ways to improve safety within transportation through technology, there also has to be convenience for people who need to move goods or services from one place to another.

“The current focus is reducing fraud and fatalities, but also providing a seamless experience for people when interacting with customers.”

Pidugualso speaks about combating fraud to improve safety and efficiency, and further efforts that have earned the DOT three consecutive CIO100 Awards for excellence in modernization. Watch the full video below for more insights, and be sure to subscribe to the monthly Center Stage newsletter by clicking here.

On AI: We look at AI as an enabler for the department to do more things at a faster pace. We don’t look at it to wipe off or replace things, but to gain efficiency and momentum to achieve what we were lacking yesterday. When you want to make a rule, for instance, there’s a process. Departments or federal agencies publish notices of proposed rulemakings, and then you have a public commenting period. Some rules gain so much interest, we get responses in the thousands. So there’s a lot of opportunity for AI to be leveraged and synthesized to read public comments and then make informed choices to make progress in a particular rule. We’ve also recently launched an identity verification process for any new citizens or entities who want to register for their trucking credentials, then apply for their DOT number, and get authorization. So to mitigate fraud, we’ve introduced an identity verification system. It’s similar to a TSA security checkpoint, but it’s a streamlined, tech-enabled process to make registration straightforward and able to fight fraud. So with AI and ML, we’re cautiously choosing what’s fit for purpose and how it’s going to make a digital experience that’s simple.

On government talent gaps: Hiring great technologists is always challenging. People talk about how hard it is for government people to attract top talent. I consider myself top talent and I took a pay cut to get into the government, but knew the sheer volume of impact I could create in the role. So I believe there are people motivated to work on a government salary but do great things for a greater good. It’s just finding that right balance and helping departments think differently, because they’re used to doing certain things in a way. So we’re changing that by building applications inside the DOT. We’re leveraging vendors and augmenting resources where we have gaps, of course, but we’re trying to find niche and key decision-making roles employed by government institutions that drive architecture and product decisions, and prioritize where we spend in house. I always remind myself that my job expires when the administration leaves, so there’s a lot I want to do. And I can only do that with the right team around me. Together we can transform things for better.

On transformation: For some people, digital transformation is about modernizing a legacy tech stack without changing processes; just moving from platform A to platform B. But transformation needs to touch the processes that were put in when the tech wasn’t evolved, where you could automate a lot of things and remove inefficiencies. You don’t have to have redundant things done in silos. That’s true transformation, and digital transforms how corporations or government agencies interact with customers, whether internal or external. So I have this thing of three Ps for digital transformation, which is process, product, and people. Product is building new tech and is the easiest one, but a lot of organizations fail in that aspect because they’re so focused on the technology piece and building new products, and not worried about what processes need to be changed and the reskilling needed with their people.

On private vs. public sector: Working at Walmart was a great learning experience to transform tech at a pace that I was able to accomplish in a federal agency. In retail in general, you plan ahead, but if you miss a moment, that moment is lost. You can’t postpone that holiday season for a week if your organization isn’t ready. If you can’t do anything in three to six months, there’s no point doing it. That was a fundamental mantra I brought to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Along with that, I started to help people develop a product mentality. You look at a process and capability that’s required for somebody to do a certain job end-to-end, and provide that capability in one-stop solutions. Then there’s government systems, which were built as and when there’s a new need, so this thinking of product mindset changed the agency to serve customers better. Maybe today someone has a business running just household goods, but tomorrow wants to start moving gasoline or some other hazardous material. It shouldn’t be so hard for people to do business with the government. That’s the goal. At Walmart, I learned to make the shopping experience easy and seamless. So here, our mantra is to make that same simple and seamless digital interaction with the government. Make it so they enjoy it. We don’t want them to come to government because there’s no other place to go. In retail, if you don’t like Walmart, you can go to Target or Albertsons. Here you don’t have a choice, so let’s make sure the only place they can shop is much easier and memorable.