GSA Blog

GSA at 75: Technology for the people today and ahead

This is part of a series of GSA.gov blog entries that highlight the agency’s past, present, and future as it marked 75 years on July 1. 

The U.S. General Services Administration gathered 250 people in three different cities last month to hack artificial intelligence – all in the name of making federal government websites and digital services efficient and user friendly.

But the AI hackathon wasn’t just about technology. 

“It’s about public trust in our government… it’s about our democracy’s ability to deliver,” GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan said during her opening remarks kicking off the event. 

GSA understands that it’s a big challenge to help the federal government keep up with the rapid pace of technological advancement, but we’re experts at delivering technology that empowers the federal workforce, makes the government efficient and builds trust with the American people. After all, GSA has already been doing that for 75 years. 

Take a closer look at how we’ve done that and choose your own adventure exploring GSA’s tech evolution, what drives GSA’s technology solutions and how it plans to deliver the best in digital government services in the next 75 years. 

Technology as part of GSA’s evolution

The evolution of technology in the 20th and 21st centuries not only influenced how the world functioned, but also became a crucial part of government as well. And GSA has always been an early adopter – we were the first to coin the term “telecommunication system” in 1957 to describe phone service, the first agency to pilot email and the first agency to move email to the cloud.

Some of that progress has been the result of GSA IT, otherwise known as the Office of the Chief Information Officer, and its predecessor offices. Since 2013, GSA IT has been transforming GSA business IT internally – simplifying technology, reducing duplication, increasing visibility into IT spending and investments, all while fostering an environment of reuse and collaboration.

GSA’s pioneering work on technology internally has helped shape our work on behalf of other agencies. 

Since 2006, FAS’ Office of Information Technology Category has delivered technology acquisition services to federal, state, local and Tribal governments. Those agencies need technology building blocks – things like hardware, software, cloud services, IT modernization, and the customer service and experience tools – so they can deliver on their respective missions. In Fiscal Year 2023, FAS helped agencies spend nearly $38 billion on technology products and services – an all-time high. Learn more about ITC’s specific projects on their blog: Great government through technology. 

Delivering technology solutions

GSA doesn’t just help agencies procure technology solutions – we also provide them. 

For more than 20 years, GSA has ensured easy, equitable access for Americans to online government services such as USAGov in Español – the official guide to government information in Spanish, connecting Spanish speakers directly to information about federal programs and services – and Sam.gov, which allows users to register to do business with the federal government. These and many other solutions speak to GSA’s long-running focus and commitment to delivering services that people need when they need them, providing a great customer experience and building trust in government at every step.

In 2014, eight Presidential Innovation Fellows created a team that became 18F, a digital consulting office that helps federal agencies improve their user experience. Through 18F, 455 projects have made public interactions with the government easier. Examples include:

• Helping the U.S. Forest Service make land permits available online. 
• Supporting the Federal Election Commission in rethinking how it provides data, instructions and legal resources to the public. 
• Transforming the process government entities at all levels use to obtain a new portal through get.gov. 
• Streamlining how GSA’s contracting officers search past government contracts for fair hourly rates. 

In 2016, GSA created Technology Transformation Services from a network of 26 Federal Information Centers created in the 1960s. Today, through more than 26 virtual platforms, TTS delivers simple, secure and accessible digital services that improve customer experiences for agencies and the millions of Americans they serve.

For instance, the 2017 release of Login.gov provided a secure sign-in service the public uses to log in to participating government agency websites. Over 100 million users access government benefits and services through Login.gov, and all Cabinet departments use this service for at least one program or application. The platform now supports over 10 million monthly active users and 40 million monthly sign-ins across nearly 50 agencies and states.

In 2017, GSA began administering the Technology Modernization Fund, an innovative funding vehicle that gives agencies more ways to deliver services to the American public quickly and securely while saving taxpayer dollars. Through TMF, more than 60 projects across 33 federal agencies have delivered system modernization, improved cybersecurity and enhanced public access to digital services. Two episodes of GSA’s podcast – specifically episode 8 and episode 9 – discuss TMF in more detail.

GSA is also using technology to drive collaboration and innovation in other parts of the government. Using GSA products, networks and services means agencies spend less money on staff and development costs so they can spend that savings on their core mission, including:

• Through U.S. Web Design System and Search.gov, which provide building blocks to help federal agencies design accessible and mobile- and user-friendly websites that make it easier for people to do business with the federal government. Once the websites are built, customer agencies can use Login.gov’s authentication and identity verification services instead of building a new service. Search.gov supports over 300 million searches a year for about 2,200 websites (one-third of federal domains) and the U.S. Web Design System is being used by 91 agencies covering nearly half of federal government website domains and accounts for over a billion page views a month.

• Through crowdsourcing initiatives such as 10x, Challenge.gov and Citizen Science.gov.
• By connecting innovators and best practices across agencies through the Centers of Excellence.
• And by providing consulting services and tech talent through 18F, the U.S. Digital Corps, and the Presidential Innovation Fellows.

Agencies working together on shared initiatives can pool their resources and expertise to develop innovative solutions that address complex challenges more effectively than any single agency could achieve alone.

Looking to the future

The decisions that government makes today will have impacts for years to come. That’s why GSA is committed to making smart investments and decisions that keep pace with the speed of technological change. Some things in the works and on the horizon:

• GSA’s Cloud Information Center helps agencies work through their cloud journey decisions: enhancing security, streamlining procurement and reskilling their workforce. 
• Strategic changes to FedRAMP enable the federal government to safely use the best of the commercial cloud marketplace while making it easier for businesses to succeed in the federal marketplace. 
• Befitting our agency’s key role in the President’s Management Agenda, we invite the public to assist in solving technology challenges. That could involve the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Cyber Resiliency and Measurement Challenge through Challenge.gov, 10x’s recently funded team to develop open-source tools that identify and reduce biases in AI datasets, or the AI Hackathon that brought together skilled students and industry professionals as well as interns from industry groups, academia and federal partners.

Finally, the topic on everyone’s mind: how the government uses AI. In 2023, President Biden signed the Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, the first governmentwide directive focused on the next generation of AI systems, which use large datasets to produce original, synthetic content that can take the form of text, code, sound and imagery. 

“We have been helping folks to get familiar with AI,” says GSA’s Chief AI Officer Zach Whitman. “And moving forward, our goals are to use AI to empower our workforce, making tasks easier, as we have in the past with other technologies, and ultimately delivering better services to our customers and the public.” 

To that end, GSA has taken a lot of action:

• USDC and PIF took part in the National AI Talent Surge. The programs are on track to hire over 100 technologists in 2024, and will collectively have over 150 total active fellows, including those in AI and AI-enabling roles. 
• GSA IT issued an internal AI directive with guidelines to empower employees to use AI tools to make a bigger impact while mitigating its risks.
• GSA also released its Generative AI and Specialized Computing Infrastructure Acquisition Resource Guide, which helps the federal acquisition community understand which Generative AI solutions to buy. We also worked with FedRAMP on the Emerging Technology Prioritization Framework, which lays out a plan to advance genAI while staying true to its rigorous security requirements.
• The AI Center of Excellence manages the AI Community of Practice to share AI training, best practices and expertise – all of which are available to people with a .gov or .mil email address. 

We’ve spent 75 years making our systems work better for the American people. And from the beginning, GSA has been an innovator, leading the way with technology to keep pace with the evolving needs of society, while improving government efficiency and operations. 

Technology is a tool, not an end in itself. As times change, so will the tech needed to support them. The post-war generation surely never imagined the technology in place today that allows us to fulfill our mission. GSA will continue to use technology to strengthen our ability to serve our workforce, clients and other agencies. And we look toward our next 75 years and what technological innovations the future holds for the generations to come.