How Federal Emergency Management Agency uses AI

FEMA reports a pre deployment tool that lets staff ask questions of spend plan and actual execution data in common language, using Azure OpenAI inside the agency's system boundary, so they can give rapid responses to data calls and requests for information and show leadership where budget was planned and spent. It illustrates the evidence retrieval step of answering an oversight request from governed internal data. Not yet live; no results published.

No outcome disclosed.

FEMA plans to translate the full text of non English documents that disaster survivors submit with their Individual Assistance applications, instead of relying on a contractor's summary of each document. The agency expects faster case processing and a drop in cost from about USD 40 per document to pennies. Original and translation will both be stored in the survivor's file, as substantiating documents that support assistance determinations.

No outcome disclosed.

FEMA's Office of the Chief Financial Officer built three internal generative AI tools, OCFO GPT, Travel Policy GPT and Fiscal Policy GPT, that draft a preliminary response to a question for the record or a policy query by pulling from the relevant public and internal FEMA and DHS documents. Analysts and travel or fiscal policy specialists refine the draft before it goes out as the agency's formal response; the tools sit in the data gathering stage of the process and do not replace analyst work or the leadership review required before anything is submitted. FEMA reports the approach cuts the initial research effort for OCFO GPT by about 80%, and saves Travel Policy and Fiscal Policy GPT users most of the time they would otherwise spend contacting the Travel Service Center or FEMA/DHS fiscal policy staff directly.

• Productivity gain: 80%

  "This has reduced the analyst initial level of effort versus individual research by 80% on initial surveys."

  Claimed by: organization
• Handling time reduction: up to 90%

  "It improves response times, saving users 80-90% of the time compared to regular engagement with the Travel Service Center."

  Claimed by: organization