MeriTalk

The Commerce Department is encouraging employees across the agency to develop their own artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, an approach that a top technology official said is already producing enterprise-wide benefits and accelerating AI adoption.

The Trump administration has created a platform to identify and patch cybersecurity vulnerabilities across the nation’s critical infrastructure sectors, using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models, the White House announced on July 14. Known as “Gold Eagle,” the platform will detect cyber vulnerabilities and respond to them in a coordinated fashion “at a speed and scale never seen before,” according to a White House press release.

Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), told senators on July 15 that the agency should function as a lean oversight body rather than an operational organization, likening it to a corporate board of directors overseeing the nation’s 18-agency intelligence community.

Alexis Bonnell, head of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and deployment at OpenAI for Government, said Tuesday that the next phase of AI adoption in government will be driven by what she called a “built by user” approach. Speaking on July 14 at MeriTalk’s Shift Happens event in Washington, D.C., Bonnell said the “built by user” approach gives employees the ability to create AI solutions tailored to their own work and expertise.

Federal agencies are entering a new phase of artificial intelligence (AI), as the White House’s “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security” executive order directs agencies to accelerate the adoption of advanced AI tools while strengthening the cyber defenses of federal and critical information systems. For many agencies, one of the most immediate challenges is the rise of AI agents.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is pressing federal agencies to better justify cybersecurity spending by tying budget requests to program performance, embracing risk-based investment decisions, and eliminating duplicative security tools.

Federal agencies seeking Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) dollars need to prove how the money will improve mission delivery, according to Jessie Posilkin, acting executive director of the General Services Administration’s TMF. Speaking Tuesday at MeriTalk’s Shift Happens event in Washington, D.C., Posilkin said agencies need to tie modernization projects to measurable outcomes increasingly. “I think the biggest gap … is looking at outcomes,” Posilkin said.

The Commerce Department finalized a direct funding agreement with Robert Bosch Semiconductor that will provide up to $225 million in CHIPS and Science Act funding to support domestic production of silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors at the company’s facility in Roseville, Calif. In conjunction with the award, Bosch plans to invest $7.5 billion in U.S. operations over the next five years.

Federal technology leaders said Tuesday that the Trump administration’s acquisition reforms are accelerating technology modernization by pushing agencies toward centralized purchasing, streamlined procurement, and greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce acquisition timelines and improve mission outcomes.

The continued adoption of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) enterprise generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) platform – GenAI.mil – will depend less on technology and more on training, leadership, and helping personnel understand how the tools can improve their daily work, according to the U.S. Marine Corps’ (USMC) AI lead. GenAI.mil, launched in late 2025, is the DOD’s enterprise GenAI platform designed to securely bring frontier AI capabilities to military and civilian personnel.