GSA aims heavy automation

The General Services Administration is pushing deeper into automation after losing nearly 40% of its workforce, with internal efforts now framed around replacing large blocks of routine staff time. (federalnewsnetwork.com) Federal News Network reported on April 14 that the agency is aiming to automate one million work hours, citing Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian. The outlet said GSA is already nearly halfway to that goal, but the one million figure has circulated through secondary reporting and deserves caution until the agency publishes a primary document or metric. (federalnewsnetwork.com) The staffing losses are documented elsewhere. Federal News Network reported on March 9, citing Office of Personnel Management data, that GSA had lost nearly 40% of its total workforce since fiscal 2024, and Chief Financial Officer Nimisha Agarwal said on February 18 that the agency had “40% less people than we had prior to last year.” (federalnewsnetwork.com) GSA is not presenting this as a science-fiction overhaul of government. Agarwal said the target is repetitive work that can be automated so staff can spend more time on judgment, risk management and strategy, especially in finance and other audit-heavy operations. (federalnewsnetwork.com) The agency has been building the policy and plumbing for that shift for months. A March 2026 GSA directive tells offices to accelerate responsible artificial intelligence adoption, set governance rules, measure performance, monitor risk and prioritize uses tied to mission delivery and service improvement. (gsa.gov) GSA also has live tools in employees’ hands already. FedScoop reported in July 2025 that Ehikian said about 50% of GSA employees were using the internal chatbot GSAi every day, and Nextgov reported in August 2025 that GSA opened its USAi platform to agencies governmentwide. (fedscoop.com, nextgov.com) USAi is the broader federal version of that push: a shared platform where agencies can test chat tools, code generation and document summarization with centralized controls. GSA’s own project page says the program launched as a six-month trial in August 2025, and Nextgov reported in February 2026 that the agency plans to publish results on how agencies are using it. (gsa.gov, nextgov.com) The agency is also trying to rebuild in places where cuts went too far. Federal News Network reported on April 6 that the Public Buildings Service plans to hire about 400 employees over six months, after layoffs left GSA trying to cut buildings, track office occupancy and keep core operations running at the same time. (federalnewsnetwork.com) That leaves GSA pursuing two tracks at once: add back some staff in critical jobs, and automate the paperwork, compliance checks and other repetitive tasks left behind by the cuts. The next real test is whether the agency releases hard numbers showing which jobs changed, how many hours were actually saved and what errors or risks the systems introduced. (federalnewsnetwork.com, nextgov.com)