Federal agencies are looking to adopt modern technologies to improve both service delivery and their internal processes, but many run into a common challenge: mountains of data and disconnected systems.

“Within any organization there is a lot of data,” Robert Lindsley, senior director of data and integration for global public sector at Salesforce, said during Federal News Network’s Cloud Exchange 2026.

“There’s a lot of associated information that people don’t always consider data, but it could be the policy documents that are associated with a given process, it could be legislation itself. So, you’ve got lots of data and information that’s required, but it’s also the context of how the agency operates — and that’s the business processes.”

Establishing context, not silos

For instance, agencies follow established processes and policies to approve grants and award contracts. Those practices range from procurement rules to security protocols. Lindsley pointed out agencies build systems to support those processes and requirements, but they may not have the context to support the best, most streamlined decision-making.

“Actually, a lot of our customers have already made progress in putting in place a unified enterprise data platform,” Lindsley said.

“What we’re able to do is leave that data in place, not copy it and create new data silos because that’s not what we want to do. We want to allow the customers to leave the data where it is, combine that with the information from unstructured data sources, and again create this unified activation layer for supporting processes and AI.”

Federal AI push

Across government, agency leaders are pursuing AI capabilities under directives from the Trump administration. The administration’s AI Action Plan, released in July 2025, pushes agencies to adopt AI.

“A lot of what we are talking to folks about is how they take their existing systems and data sources and use and leverage those to improve their mission outcomes, improve the delivery of citizen services,” Lindsley said.

“They want to use that but also have a vision for how that can improve over time and what the legacy they want to leave for their agency would be. More and more, they realize that they’re at a pretty influential time where they can define the path to AI for their agency — that how the agency adopts and rolls out AI can be a big part of their legacy.”

Modernizing legacy processes

Even amid the ongoing push to adopt AI, Lindsley pointed out that many agencies still have numerous paper-based processes. But he argued current digital tools can allow agencies to “leapfrog” what has been a typically slow and sequential digital modernization journey.

“We’re talking tens of thousands of forms mailed in every year, and they’re having to work through that,” he said. “There are leaders who have struggled for years to digitize and automate those processes and move that forward. We now have the tools. … We were trying to move sequentially in a modernization process, but I think we can now leapfrog.”

Agencies have struggled with backlogs of work, from Freedom of Information Act requests to passport applications. Lindsley said agentic AI and related technologies can help agencies move past challenges that have previously seemed insurmountable.

“I think that it would be fun to work with any agency leader that wants to tackle one of those big challenges that have existed in their organization and figure out a way forward,” he said.

Discover more articles and videos now on the Cloud Exchange event page.

Copyright © 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.