A recent agreement struck by the General Services Administration and ServiceNow aims to provide a route for federal workers to gain more experience using AI tools. This agreement makes it easier to access ServiceNow products for boosting workflow efficiencies through the use of AI capabilities.
“The OneGov agreement matters for skills development, because AI capability is built through experience, not just training,” says Jonathan Alboum, federal CTO at ServiceNow. “As agencies modernize their workflows on the ServiceNow AI Platform, employees develop AI skills organically through daily use, interacting with insights and AI-assisted processes as part of their everyday work.”
Rather than treating upskilling as a separate initiative, OneGov helps employees gain hands-on experience as AI becomes embedded in mission operations — accelerating adoption and building confidence across the workforce, Alboum says.
Another way to support AI upskilling is for agencies to collaborate more directly with AI solutions providers. Leveraging their deep understanding of the tools they are providing through workshops and other guided learning opportunities can yield new insights on how best to deploy AI resources within agency workflows.
AI workshops are critical for helping federal employees develop a relationship with the technology and its use in daily tasks.
“I now ask our federal customers, let’s find two or three hours where we can come in and get everybody on a keyboard using AI for their particular areas of expertise,” Stevens says. “That's going to pay much greater dividends for everyone in the end.”
UP NEXT: GSA’s USAi platform helps agencies act on the AI Action Plan.
Long-Term Considerations for AI Upskilling
One of the fundamental challenges of bringing AI technology into a workflow is determining the balance of the relationship between the human and the technology. Any upskilling should include training on the role of the human in the decision-making loop that guides the AI.
“We are moving into a world where agencies will rely on hybrid teams of human and digital workers,” Alboum says. “So, taking the time today to develop the right balance between AI and human decision-making is critical.”
AI is better off handling repetitive tasks and providing surface insights at scale, while human oversight adds context, empathy and, ultimately, ethical accountability. Meanwhile, government employees get time back to focus on decision-making and mission outcomes, Alboum says.
The other long-term challenge for AI upskilling is the constant growth of the technology and how it fits into evolving federal workforce roles. The extent and level of specificity at which soldiers are being taught to use AI should be fluid.
“The Army will definitely need specific AI skills from soldiers operating certain pieces of equipment, certain pieces of software, certain AI models. The Army will also need soldiers who can speak and think across various domains of AI systems and theoretical constructs to be able to integrate all the various pieces of AI-enabled systems across the tactical, operational and strategic levels,” Sturzinger says. “The different levels of granularity and skill sets should be continuously reassessed, because this is a moving target, and it will change in a few years.”
