Alaska’s executive agencies have grown large, redundant and administratively costly. The Departments of Natural Resources (DNR), Environmental Conservation (DEC), Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED), and Health (DOH) often duplicate federal functions or build bureaucratic layers that delay permitting, licensing and service delivery. Through targeted administrative downsizing and the integration of AI systems, Alaska can both shrink government and enhance operational performance. Here’s how.
STRUCTURAL REFORMS
Administrative Reduction Mandate
— Reduce administrative overhead in DNR, DEC, DCCED, and DOH by 15–30%.
— Achieve reductions via attrition, consolidation, and elimination of redundant middle management roles.
— Prioritize maintaining frontline and technical personnel during transition.
Implement AI-Driven Operational Systems
— Digitize and automate permitting, inspection, licensing, Medicaid screening, and compliance reporting.
— Deploy machine learning to detect fraud in Medicaid billing, contractor grants, and procurement.
— Develop a centralized digital platform for cross-agency data integration and real-time reporting.
Consolidate Agency Functions
— Merge permitting and regulatory compliance under a centralized environmental and land-use AI platform.
— Consolidate business licensing functions under a single online interface.
— Eliminate parallel functions between state and local or federal entities (e.g., DEC vs. EPA duplication).
Fiscal Impact
Legal and Contracting Framework
— No statutory changes are required for attrition-based staff reduction.
— AI procurement and integration can be funded via ARPA, IIJA, and Tech Modernization grants.
— Agencies may enter into public-private partnerships for AI development and compliance automation.
Personnel Transition and Redeployment
— Use buyouts and retraining to transition administrative staff into private compliance firms, tribal development offices or public-private partnership infrastructure roles
— Retraining programs funded via WIOA, DOE, and IIJA.
Oversight and Transparency
— Create a temporary AI Modernization Oversight Board under OMB.
— Require annual performance reports showing time savings in permitting/licensing, reduction in staff costs per function, and measurable user and applicant satisfaction scores.
— Sunset clause: Oversight board dissolved after 3 years with final audit.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
5 Comments
The use of AI is absolutely terrible. AI cannot answer specific questions. Many companies are using AI and you can’t accomplish anything, never have an opportunity to speak with a REAL person, total lack of customer service.
My comment was deleted in regards, to AI, which tells me that you’ll only post comments which are in support of AI. Try interacting with a company that uses AI and see how far you get in customer service (nothing accomplished) because AI is limited on responses and AI cannot fix or solve issues. Speaking with a REAL person you’re able to resolve issues and find solutions.
Golly, and here I thought that was why we sent all those ‘conservatives’ to Juneau? You know, conservatives. Our Legislature has the no RiNOs, all the Rs and many Independents and Dems are also ‘conservative. The brand has been so diluted so as to be a total joke. Conservatives, what conservatives? Note the rising activism by the Left in this state. How long before we get an LA or Portland in Anchorage or Fairbanks? Antifa won’t dare anywhere else, too many Alaskans who would not stand for that kind of behavior. AI is a tool, but AI is also a double edged sword. Be careful what you wish for.
This article is about reducing redundancies and though I agree that AI is a customer service horror, it’s also true that few need to talk to more than one person in order to accomplish a specific task and for some processes there is no need to speak to a CSR at all. AI has its place and its functionality is expanding dramatically. Many ISR functions will be made redundant and a remarkable number of government functionaries will be replaced.
Golly, and here I thought that was why we sent all those ‘conservatives’ to Juneau? You know, conservatives. Our Legislature has the no RiNOs, all the Rs and many Independents and Dems are also ‘conservative. The brand has been so diluted so as to be a total joke. Conservatives, what conservatives? Note the rising activism by the Left in this state. How long before we get an LA or Portland in Anchorage or Fairbanks? Antifa won’t dare anywhere else, too many Alaskans who would not stand for that kind of behavior. AI is a tool, but AI is also a double edged sword. Be careful what you wish for.