The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is expanding its use of artificial intelligence as part of a broader effort to modernize operations, improve efficiency and upgrade critical infrastructure, according to Deputy Secretary Steven Bradbury, Nextgov/FCW reported.

Speaking at GovExec’s Government Efficiency Summit, Bradbury said AI is already helping the agency accelerate software development and streamline key processes. AI-assisted development has dramatically shortened software production timelines, reducing them from 18 months to just 18 weeks. The department is also seeing growing workforce engagement with the technology.

Citing internal figures, Bradbury said, “80% of DOT people are now looking at the uses of AI. We’re using it in making our rulemaking faster, more effective. We get tens of thousands of comments on the complicated rules that we issue. We need to be able to digest those quickly, understand them [and] respond to them. AI can obviously help with that. Similarly, reviewing hundreds and hundreds of grant applications to make the right decisions about which projects to support through our grantmaking — AI is going to be instrumental in helping us do that as well.”

AI is also expected to play a central role in the modernization of the nation’s air traffic control system. The Federal Aviation Administration is developing its Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) system, which Bradbury said will “use all of the information available, [including] weather, what’s going on at the ground [and] where airplanes are being prepared for takeoff across the whole system to know in advance what the conflict points are.”