The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is expanding its use of artificial intelligence (AI) agents and other software from Salesforce, a vendor of customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, in a broad information technology (IT) upgrade.Salesforce called the move an “expanded agencywide transformation initiative,” saying that its software is already modernizing core functions across the department, helping enhance citizen safety through real-time, interstate data sharing. DOT will now also use Salesforce to simplify the management of billions in federal grants. The agency will also deploy Agentforce — Salesforce’s AI agent platform — to help create a more efficient and responsive transportation system by handling routine tasks, offering citizens around-the-clock support, and generating immediate alerts with proposed optimal mitigation strategies for traffic and infrastructure incidents.The goal of the upgrade is to accelerate the department’s work, which has been slowed by duplicative systems, siloed data, and administrative overload — hampering operations and speed of critical infrastructure and transportation projects, Salesforce said.To correct that, the DOT said it will deploy Agentforce, a digital workforce of autonomous, intelligent AI agents, to assist human employees by automating manual, tactical, and operational tasks across the agency.Specifically, those AI agents will:Provide around-the-clock citizen support for things like complaints and accessing services, automating routine requests so human staff can focus on more complex cases.Autonomously analyze vast, complex datasets — such as weather, traffic trends, and historical incident data — to generate real-time alerts and recommend optimal mitigation strategies that can help USDOT reduce transportation accidents and injuries.Quickly review grant…
