If you’ve ever felt a twinge of anxiety about whether your skills can keep pace with the changes reshaping the federal workplace, you’re far from alone.

In fact, in this episode of Fed Thread, leaders from the Training Officers Consortium (TOC), Graduate School USA and FranklinCovey make it clear that federal employees aren’t just imagining the pressure, they’re living it.

Brian Simms, senior director of AI and learning at Graduate School USA, sees it firsthand in the classroom with feds. “So many of these folks have watched so many of their coworkers and teammates leave… And now they’re doing the work of multiple people,” he explains. Add in the adoption of AI tools and the continuous push toward greater efficiencies, it’s no wonder feds are worrying what their roles will look like a few years from now.

The panelists agreed that while the anxiety is valid, the opportunity is enormous, especially for those willing to rethink what “valuable work” looks like.

The shift from knowing the process to improving it

Amy Neubelt, executive board chair and CIO of TOC (a recently retired fed herself) explained that the biggest change isn’t the tech. It’s the expectations.

“In the past [success] was really knowing the process of things,” she says. “But now… it’s knowing how can I improve the process.” AI isn’t replacing federal judgment, she emphasizes; it’s clearing space for it. Draft the memo with AI, but you make the call. Automate the spreadsheet, but you decide what the data means.

That shift is already reshaping roles. Administrative and analyst positions, for example, are moving from manual data handling to decision support. As Neubelt put it, “We are doing more with less, and we have to be able to deliver just like we did before.”

Is hybrid intelligence the skillset of the future?

Jennifer Colosimo, senior executive at FranklinCovey, framed the future in one phrase: hybrid intelligence.

Yes, technical skills matter, she says, but the differentiators will be human ones, like clarity, collaboration, problem‑solving, and the ability to connect dots AI can’t. “We are going to continue to have uniquely human skills,” Colosimo reasons, and those who thrive will be the ones who use tech to accelerate their impact, not define it.

Simms agrees, adding that the most successful feds in five years won’t be the ones who picked the “right” AI tool. They’ll be the ones who stayed curious and kept poking at it.

If you’re feeling behind, start small

The panelists offered simple, practical starting points for anyone unsure of where to begin:

• Use AI in low‑stakes personal tasks to learn how it thinks
• Try it on small work tasks from the safety of your agency’s enterprise environment
• Build comfort before you build mastery

Simms likens it to going back to preschool, where the opportunity for experiential learning is high and the consequences for making a mistake are low. “Play with it… in a safe environment,” he advises. “Find out how sloppy you can be.”

Catch more conversations on podcast platforms, YouTube or on the Fed Thread hub page.

Copyright © 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.