OPM turns to AI to speed up federal hiring and retirement processing
The Office of Personnel Management is deploying artificial intelligence across federal human resources operations, targeting two of the government's slowest manual processes: writing job descriptions and handling retirement benefit applications.
OPM Director Scott Kupor announced the USA Class tool at the UiPath Fusion conference, designed to generate draft position descriptions that align with the government's classification standards. The tool trains on thousands of existing job descriptions, then produces new ones when hiring managers input basic job information.
"If you feed AI a bunch of job descriptions, it's a lot easier to create the next job description by you being able to type in and say, 'OK, I'm hiring for a financial analyst, tell me what's needed,'" Kupor said.
Federal hiring involves navigating more than 600 job classifications across a workforce of over 2 million civilian employees. The complexity forces hiring managers to spend significant time ensuring descriptions match OPM's classification standards before posting positions.
Kupor emphasized that AI handles the draft work, with HR staff reviewing outputs for accuracy. This feedback strengthens the model over time.
Automating retirement services
On the retirement side, OPM is moving toward AI-powered customer service bots to handle routine requests from federal retirees. The current system remains largely paper-based and manual-a 50-year-old process that involves mailing documents between HR departments, payroll offices, and an underground records facility in Boyers, Pennsylvania.
The agency's retirement call centers face overwhelming demand. "We have way more calls than people who can actually service them," Kupor said.
AI bots can handle common requests like address changes without requiring callers to reach a human during business hours. More complex issues would still route to staff.
AI as support, not replacement
Kupor stressed that both applications aim to free human workers from repetitive tasks, not eliminate positions. Hiring managers would focus on recruitment and candidate conversations instead of writing descriptions. Call center staff would handle genuinely complicated retirement questions rather than processing routine form updates.
"If you've got some complicated problem, then yes, I want you to talk to the individual," Kupor said. "But if you're trying to change your address on a retirement form, it's just so obvious that we can do that in a way that is modern."
For HR professionals managing federal hiring or benefits administration, these tools represent a shift toward AI for Human Resources and AI Agents & Automation in government operations. The approach mirrors broader federal efforts to modernize workforce management systems.
Your membership also unlocks:
