Paula Osborn, Deputy Chief Data and AI Officer at the U.S. Department of State (DOS), speaks with Amy Jones, U.S. Public Sector AI Lead at EY, in a video interview about the development and impact of AI, how it can be effectively leveraged, integrating diplomatic cables with the StateChat system, and working with interagency processes.

At the outset, Osborn expresses her excitement around AI and its impact. She states that people often talk about data-informed diplomacy, but in practice when it comes to change management and gaining buy-in, the primary focus is time savings. If the working level and leadership are shown that AI will save time, they will leverage it.

Osborn confirms that this has been the most effective messaging, serving as the primary focus of the use cases as the department continues to mature in its application of data and AI. As an example, she discusses the declassification project, wherein classified diplomatic cables (confidential messages) are declassified.

Before release, however, someone must manually review and redact sensitive information to ensure nothing jeopardizes U.S. interests.

Until recently, this redaction process was done manually by a team. With the explosion of internet-driven communication, the volume of diplomatic correspondence has increased dramatically, making the process unsustainable in the near future, says Osborn. To address this, she states that the analytics team developed a model with extremely high accuracy using decades of training data on past redactions.

While humans still spot-check the results for accuracy, the process has shifted from being nearly unmanageable to entirely feasible. It is not just saving time but ensuring that the department can keep up with the growing workload.

Delving further, Osborn states that the most exciting aspect, and the one that the department is most asked about is integrating diplomatic cables with the StateChat system (DOS’ AI-powered chatbot). She notes that this would be a game-changer, as cables represent the largest amount of internal data within the department.

Adding on, Osborn states that if the department could query cables, the insights generated would be extraordinary. This integration would truly supercharge the department’s ability to conduct data-informed diplomacy. It wouldn’t just leverage external data but would combine it with rich internal data, providing powerful resources for making decisions.

When asked to comment on working with interagency processes, Osborn explains that, as leaders, a significant part of their role involves guiding other departments through the process of establishing their own systems and scaling the initiatives the department has already been executing. She mentions participating in and co-chairing interagency working groups.

According to Osborn, enabling data-sharing between agencies would be a game-changer. Adding that layer of data for decision-making would be incredibly impactful. She shares that the department is actively discussing with various federal departments how to broker data-sharing between agencies.

However, legacy systems and data structures, both within the state department and across agencies, make this more challenging than many might expect. Osborn concludes that this is something that the department is working to navigate, both internally and externally, through collaboration with the interagency.

CDO Magazine appreciates Paula Osborn for sharing her insights with our global community.