Presented by US AI & Carahsoft
At the Google Public Sector Summit, Macey Smith, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at US AI, described how agencies can finally achieve both speed and security in modernization—a balance that has historically seemed impossible.
“Traditionally, security slowed modernization,” Smith said. “It could take two, three, even five years for agencies to get new applications authorized and deployed.”
US AI set out to solve that problem by embedding security directly into its technology stack. “We’ve merged innovation and protection,” she said. “With our intelligent computing platform, all the security controls—everything from the cloud to the management layer—are already built in. Agencies just need to build the application layer.”
That embedded security drastically reduces time to market. “Something that once took years can now be built and deployed in a few months—or even weeks,” Smith said.
This, she noted, represents a major shift in how agencies will think about development and workforce structure. “Agile development won’t go away overnight,” she said, “but we’re seeing the emergence of AI-driven development that’s faster, cheaper, and more flexible.”
While US AI’s platform still integrates with standard authorization processes like continuous ATO, Smith explained that embedding controls simplifies compliance. “All of the monitoring tools are already part of the environment,” she said. “So each new application inherits those controls automatically.”
Smith measures success not only in speed but in operational efficiency. “We’re seeing agencies reallocate funding and people from routine service contracts to innovation,” she said. “That’s how you know modernization is working—when resources move from maintaining the old to creating the new.”
She acknowledged that this evolution could mean fewer traditional service roles but said it’s ultimately a positive shift. “We’ll see a reduction in manual services, but those people can be redeployed into more strategic positions,” she said. “We want to elevate talent, not replace it.”
The result, she said, is a government that can move as quickly as the technology it adopts. “Innovation should not be slowed by bureaucracy,” Smith said. “By integrating security from the start and using AI to accelerate delivery, we can finally modernize at mission speed.”
Key Takeaways
Embedding security into the development platform eliminates traditional bottlenecks.
AI-driven development can build applications in hours or days, accelerating modernization.
Agencies can reallocate resources from routine service contracts to innovation-focused work.