The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is facing a shortage of skilled workers to develop artificial intelligence tools, and no clear plan to address the gap, according to a March 24 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The shortfall stems in part from staff reductions in 2025, including dozens of employees involved in AI initiatives. The losses included 63 personnel from the IRS’s Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics unit, with other divisions also reporting cuts and organizational changes affecting AI efforts.
The GAO found that the IRS lacks a workforce strategy to identify and fill critical AI skills gaps. It also noted that the agency maintains an incomplete inventory of AI applications, limiting visibility into how AI is being used and its potential benefits.
“IRS officials said they had not identified skills needed to support AI or developed a plan to address the skills gaps. The recent staff reductions, the intent to pursue additional AI initiatives, and the absence of a plan to address AI skills gaps increase the risk that IRS AI efforts will not succeed,” the GAO said in its report.
The IRS agreed with the GAO’s eight recommendations to improve planning and oversight. In the report, the GAO also provides the following recommendation:

• Identify skills gaps and develop an AI workforce plan; 
• Implement a comprehensive quality assurance process for AI inventory entries; 
• Clarify internal communications to ensure all AI use cases are included in the inventory; and 
• Require reporting on use case alignment with strategic goals.