The Department of Transportation (DOT) is launching a department-wide modernization initiative driven by Salesforce artificial intelligence (AI) agents that will automate operational tasks across the department’s components.
Announced Thursday morning, Salesforce said that DOT will use its AI agent platform Agentforce – described by the company as a “digital workforce of autonomous, intelligent AI agents” – to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of its transportation system.
Specifically, DOT will use Agentforce to automate manual, tactical, and operational tasks, which will offer customers around-the-clock support and help generate alerts with optimal mitigation strategies for traffic and infrastructure incidents.
The AI agents will also help streamline grant applications, verify compliance, flag inconsistencies or missing data, and draft approval recommendations for human review, which will “simplify the management of billions in federal grants.”
“To deliver on our mission of building a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system, we have to start with making technology our biggest asset,” Pavan Pidugu, chief information officer of DOT, said in a statement.
“We needed to make a strategic shift to deliver on our mission: adding AI at the core of everything we’re doing. Now, we’re not just deploying new technology, we’re empowering our agency to work more effectively, and most importantly, ensuring the safety and future of our country’s transportation system,” Pidugu added.
DOT said the modernization effort will also unify its systems on the Salesforce Government Cloud, using Data 360 to “bring everything together on a single, secure platform.”
The modernization initiative looks to address duplicative systems, siloed data, and administrative overload within the DOT, according to Salesforce, which explained that those challenges have limited operations and the speed of critical infrastructure and transportation projects.
Using automation to support certain processes aims to save time, Pidugu said, adding that “it’s mind-blowing what the number of actual days of work is that we can save by doing this.”
“Agentforce is fueling a new era of government modernization, and USDOT offers a clear blueprint for how agents can improve productivity and accelerate citizen processes,” said Kendall Collins, CEO of Government Cloud at Salesforce. “With a secure and reliable CRM foundation and trusted AI agents, we’re helping the USDOT deliver a safer, more agile and responsive transportation system for every American.”
Other modernization efforts that Salesforce has been supporting at DOT include using Agentforce Public Sector to streamline operations, improving call-center response times with AI, and enabling nationwide data sharing that helps the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration identify safety risks faster.
The department is also consolidating more than 10 legacy systems into a unified grant platform to speed application reviews and the distribution of federal infrastructure funding.
DOT has placed a strong emphasis on modernization, especially within the Federal Aviation Administration, where it recently awarded a $12.5 billion contract to Peraton to overhaul the nation’s air traffic control systems.