Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is central to the Social Security Administration's effort to make the agency a "digital-first" organization despite Musk's exit, said Frank Bisignano, the agency's new head.
"I look at them as a resource to help me," Bisignano, who has described himself as "fundamentally a DOGE person," recently told The Wall Street Journal.
Bisignano has expressed support for using technology to streamline processes and improve efficiency at the SSA, including letting people replace their SSA cards without human interaction and integrating artificial intelligence to make the agency's disability determination processes move faster.
Integrating AI will be a "long journey," he told the Journal, but the agency will continue to "refine the intelligence to continue to get better answers."
Still, "there's a ton of things that AI can apply to move it along faster," Bisignano told managers last month, according to NextGov.
"Tech's got to be the great enabler, right?" said Bisignano. "We're going to invest."
"I think we should get a lot more done on the web," he added. "You're competing with experiences that people have on Amazon."
The Social Security Administration, which sends checks to 73 million retired and disabled Americans each month, has reduced its workforce by more than 12% this year. A reorganization plan within the agency includes goals to "further reduce its footprint" in 2026 and beyond through "field office consolidation."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.