Ep. 274 AI-Driven DevSecOps: Accelerating Security and Modernization in Federal IT

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The impact of AI in software development in the federal government is so pervasive that, in July of 2025, the President of the United States released a White House AI Action Plan.

Today, we sat down with Bob Stevens from GitLab to put this development into perspective, examine some use cases, and suggest methods that federal agencies can use to prepare for this technological shift.

What precipitated the initiative is the recognition that change is occurring so rapidly in the world of software development that the federal government must adapt more quickly than in the past, or it will be vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Stevens notes that the federal government has been targeting modernization, producing software faster, and being more efficient, for a decade. AI will help them get there, with some possible cost reduction.

For example, in the past, a vulnerability may have taken weeks to discover. Utilizing AI allows federal software developers to reduce that discovery to minutes. That ties in with one essential element in the White House initiative: security. In fact, one of the pillars of the Action Plan is titled “Promoting Secure-by-Design AI Technologies and Applications.”

Stevens has been involved in federal software development for decades and thinks that a platform approach best serves the essential objectives of this Action Plan. The conversation concludes with the potential for AI to streamline government processes and improve operational efficiency.

If you are interested in learning more about the economics of this approach, you can download The Economics of Software Innovations: $750 billion Opportunity at a Crossroads.