← CIO Leadership Live
Loading summary
Transcript36 lines
- [00:04]
A
Hi and welcome to CIO Leadership Live. I'm Lucas Marion, a senior writer with Computer World magazine. I'm at the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards show in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I have with me today Pavan Pitigu. He is the CIO of the Department of Transportation. Thank you for coming, Lukas.
- [00:21]
B
It's my pleasure. Very nice to be here. Absolutely. Thank you.
- [00:24]
A
A lot of changes have been happening in the Department of Transportation. I know that over time you have been in the heat of that transportation or that transformation in the department. Can you talk a little bit about what that's been like over the past few years?
- [00:40]
B
Yeah, I can actually speak. Over the last five years that I was at the Motor Carrier Safety Administration, we had a stride that brought the agency to be here at the CIO hundred three times in a row consecutively. Right before the very first CIO 100 we received three years ago, it was an agency that had no trust either by the internal stakeholders nor the external stakeholders. The technology was. Forget about being the current days of technology shop. It was dated to 20 to 25 years ago. Right. Like there was not a lot of investment, not a lot of trust, not a lot of delivery that had happened. So transforming from where we were, where how we were perceived to what we are today, sitting here in this CIO 100 symposium award, to be collecting the third consecutive CIO 100Amazing Journey.
- [01:45]
A
Not just an award winner, but three times in a row.
- [01:47]
B
Three times in a row. It was not easy. It was a lot harder than what many organizations would have achieved. One, because I, as a leader, have never worked inside a federal government, not just any government, for that matter, but understanding and transforming culture there took a little bit longer time than you would anticipate. But look at where we are right now. I think what we were able to achieve as an organization, me getting promoted and having been asked by the Secretary of the transportation, Mr. Shan Duffy, to run the department's. It is a testament. And I really thank for that opportunity because, you know, being inside the department, there is a lot of opportunities for us to get better. Right. It's always going to be we move the needle from here to here, but we need to be here. We should have been here already. But how do we get there is the big game that we have in front of us.
- [02:55]
A
I want to ask you about that, because President Trump's view on AI is very different from a lot of other folks, especially at the state level. He wanted to move more toward deregulation of AI. Kind of open it up for any kind of development that nation needed. How has this attitude affected what's happening at the Department of Transportation? Are you using AI fairly freely?
- [03:18]
B
So we are looking at AI as an enabler, AI as a game changer to enable the department to do more things at a faster pace. We are not looking at AI as wipe off or replace certain things, but truly an enabler to gain the efficiency, to gain the momentum of achieving things that we were lacking yesterday. Just to give you an example, when you kind of want to make a rule, there is a process. People, you know, the departments or the Federal agencies publish NPRMs and then you have public commenting, period. Some rules gain so much interest and traction, you have responses that are like in thousands. So there is a lot of opportunities for AI to be leveraged, to be able to synthesize, read what the comments from public are about and then make an informed choice in making that progress in that role.
- [04:23]
A
It'd be refreshing to have the government actually listen to us and make those changes. And you're telling me that AI is actually helping you to understand what the public needs or wants, right?
- [04:33]
B
It is improvising the pace that it takes to read all the 60,000 comments. If you were to see are there
- [04:41]
A
any current or upcoming AI or machine learning initiatives at fmcsa, particularly with risk protection or enforcement?
- [04:49]
B
So we have recently launched an identity verification process for any new citizens or the entities that want to register for their trucking credentials, apply for their DOT number and get authorization. So there to mitigate fraud in that area, we have introduced a identity verification. It goes through. It's not a lot different than what you experience when you walk in through an airport, through the TSA security checkpoint, but at the same time kind of streamline it and simplify that process to make registration for a DOT authorization pretty seamless. In that process of evolution, we've factored in modern technologies to fight the fraud. So the AI are the machine learning. We are cautiously choosing what is the fit for purpose of that technology and how it is going to be fit for the use to make a digital experience that's very simple and seamless. It is.
- [06:05]
A
Now I've talked to people in healthcare industry here, people in financial services, to highly regulated vertical industries, but the government is also highly regulated. How have you dealt with regulatory issues when it comes to deploying technologies like AI?
- [06:21]
B
So again, see, unlike any industry, the technology arm within a federal department is also making sure that the purpose of the department is safety. Our mission is at motor carriers is to reduce the number of Fatalities and the number of crashes that are involved with large trucks and buses. Right. So to serve that purpose, if we can leverage modern technology to make safety better, we're all in game for it, right? When you think of losing lives is not easy, losing somebody's loved one is not easy. And the role of the motor carriers agency is such that you may never meet that person that you have saved. But knowing that what we did that's so meaningful and it saved somebody's life is a very, very great mission. And the Office of the Technology Officer, the role itself is to contribute and help the policymakers in the government to take advantage of what technology can bring to them. Right. So that's the bigger view of what technology will bring in the situation, rather than, hey, I want to build some cool app. It's as an engineer, I may want to do that and take credit for it. But when you pull myself out of that, you know, wanting to do something cool but with a purpose, that's what we are in the game for.
- [08:04]
A
You know, I look down the road, everything's monitored now. There are cameras Everywhere, you have IoT devices, you have autonomous vehicles. What are we going to look at in the future in terms of safety, in terms of monitoring and what sort of things in the next three to five years can we look forward to?
- [08:21]
B
So it is going to be evolutionary, obviously, you know, by the time we finish the conversation here on the stage and get down, we'll probably find something that some innovation has occurred or something got invented that we have to go and adapt. Technology is moving at that pace these days. Right. So when you think of what could be future again, the things that we have to adapt that we don't know of today, we'll deal with them when we have to. But the current focus has been around how do we improve safety, how do we improve? Make transportation very safety oriented and provides convenience factor for people that want to move from one place to the other place or move their goods from one place to the other place. Right. So current focus is reducing fraud, reducing, you know, the last of lives or limbs.
- [09:21]
A
Fatalities.
- [09:22]
B
Yeah, and fatalities. And ultimately providing a seamless experience for the folks that would want to interact with the customers.
- [09:32]
A
Have you achieved that yet? Have you achieved any measure of improvement through these new technologies like AI?
- [09:38]
B
It's always going to be evolution, Right. We're never going to say we have to achieve X percent reduction in the lives that are lost compared to last year versus this year. Even you lose one life. That's sad. So we're not going to have. Our mission is to get to zero. It's a goal that at some point we must achieve and I have hopes for that. But what we have achieved in the process is obviously our catch rate of bad actors that should not be driving or the companies that should not be operating has gone higher. Our efficiency in terms of when you see trucks moving along the highways and there are roadside inspections that are done at the weigh stations along the highways, the time it takes for the inspection with the legacy way of doing and what systems were available back then versus the modern solutions that we have provided in the last two years. That was Safe Spec, which was our CIO 100 award winner for the very first time. It has brought down the amount of time it takes a truck that is standing inside a base station getting to be inspected much faster. Right. So that actually helps the efficiency of supply chain industry for the entire country. Because if the truck is sitting idle waiting to be inspected, that's the last time. Last efficiency and last it impacts economy too because, you know, wheels not moving. The supply chain industry is not making money not moving goods fast enough. So we achieved some of those metrics with the new ID verification thing we recently launched like less than few months ago. We're hoping to reduce the fraud that happens in that industry through that technology as well. And again, all of these things tie back to the fraud, right? Like you are a great driver that has a very good safety KPI. If you are a company that's running operations with safety KPIs and monitoring those. And these things contribute to less accidents that involves large trucks. So the more you catch, the more bad actors are not put on the streets. It's, you know, a proven theory that the accidents would also be reduced.
- [12:17]
A
Correct me if I'm wrong. Department of Transportation also oversees mass transportation as well. Correct train system. I was just in Europe a couple years ago. Love their mass transit system. I never have a problem getting from A to B. I'm out of Boston mbta. I don't think anybody sings its praises. How can AI and other technologies help improve mass transportation in this country? Can it?
- [12:42]
B
So not my expertise as of today. Again. I was at motor carriers for four years. Recently got asked to be the CIO for the entire department. But you know, I'm going to take this back to my friends that are running fta which, you know, the mass transits fall under and make sure that, you know, I circle back with you on what the plan for Boston is.
- [13:11]
A
Yeah, you can hear the cheering in the background. If you can improve mass transit in this country, I'll tell you that right now. Where do you see the digital transformation going in the next three to five years for you?
- [13:24]
B
So it's a scary word depending on who you ask and what the context is. Right. You know, when you think of digital transformation, for some people it's just like, you know, modernizing their legacy tech stack without changing processes or whatnot. For some people it is like, okay, I'm on platform A, I need to move to platform B, that's digitally transformed. But for me, when I look at that is that transformation needs to touch the processes that were put in when the technology was not evolved to a great extent, where you could automate a lot of things, you could remove inefficiencies, you don't have to have redundant things that are done in silos.
- [14:12]
A
You know, bots are issues.
- [14:14]
B
That's the true transformation. And digital is a method of transforming how corporations or government agencies interact with their customers, whether it is internal or external. Right. So I have this thing of three Ps for digital transformation which is like, you know, process product and people and product meaning building new tech, which is the easiest one. And probably a lot of organization fail in that transformation because they're so focused on the technology piece of the three piece, building new products, but not worry too much about what processes need to be changed and what reskilling they have to do with their people.
- [15:00]
A
Okay, so one of the things I love about being able to talk to you is you've worked in both the private and the public sector. How has your experience at Walmart and GE shaped your approach at the fmcsa?
- [15:13]
B
So having worked in Walmart, it was great learning experience to run in any organization and transform tech at a pace that I was able to accomplish in a federal agency. What about. So in retail in general, you know, you plan ahead, you get ready and you miss a moment and that moment is lost. Right. That that holiday season is not. You can't be postponing that holiday season for a week.
- [15:49]
A
It's unforgiving.
- [15:50]
B
You as an organization is not ready. So I was fortunate to work in Walmart and also had the opportunity to run customer facing technology across Walmart's international. So it kind of gave me, you know, if you can't do anything in three to six months, no point in doing it was a fundamental mantra that I operate and brought to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Then along with that, started to help people to think product mentality. Right. You know, okay, you look at a process you look at a capability that is required for somebody to do a certain job end to end and provide that capability end to end in one stop shop solutions. Otherwise the government systems were built as and when there is a new need. A new thought that came up. There was a brand new system that was stood up. So this thinking of product mindset changed the agency to serve the customers better. We're modernizing our safety solutions. The law enforcement officers have one application. They need to log in to do entire truck inspection. The carrier community will have one place to do anything with their carrier number, update their registration status or actually get new authorities. Today I'm a business that is running just household goods. Tomorrow I want to start moving gasoline or some other hazardous material. Then you don't have to make it so hard for people to do business with the government. That's the goal at Walmart. That was one thing I learned. Make shopping experience easy and seamless. So here our mantra is make that digital interaction with the government, make it seamless. Make it simple enough that they enjoy it. We don't want them to come to government because there is no other place that they can go to. If you need a dot number, I mean in retail, if you don't like Walmart, you can go to Target, you could go to Albertsons, you could go somewhere else. You don't have much better choice here. You don't have a choice. Right. So let's make sure the only place that they can shop around is much more easier and memorable.
- [18:14]
A
Yeah, I don't think you're going to get an argument from anyone on that one. Please make it easier. Last question. I want to talk a little bit about hiring particularly difficult in the current environment. Where are the challenges, especially when it comes to talent gaps. What do you, what's the gap right now in the government? What are you seeking and how are you dealing with that?
- [18:41]
B
So hiring great technologists is always challenging. I felt that as hard as in my previous job as well. It's always important to understand what the role must do and get the right candidate in the role again. People talk about it's so hard for government people to attract top talent, which I feel hard to believe. So because I consider myself top talent and I took a lot of pay cut to get into the government again just for the sheer volume of impact that I can create in the role within the federal government. So I strongly believe there are people that are motivated to work in the government salary, doing great things for greater good. It's just finding that right balance and also helping the government departments to think differently because they're used to doing certain things in a way depending on a lot of vendors to play that technology development role. And we're changing that. We're building applications inside the Department of Transportation. We're obviously going to be leveraging vendors, augmenting resources where we have gaps, but trying to find the niche and key decision making roles employed by the government institutions that drives the architecture, that drives the product decisions and prioritizes where we spend is going to be in house. That transformation has began and there are a few other fellow CIOs that I talk to on a regular basis, including the Federal cio, Greg Barbaccia. They're amazing and they come with similar mindset of the hungerness to change things radically. Right. You know, again, I always remind myself on a daily basis that my job came with an expiration. When I took on the appointed role by the secretary. It comes with an expiration. When the administration leave, I leave as well. So I remind myself that I have three years and X number of months and days and there is a lot that I want to do. What can I speed up in what priority? I want to accomplish those things and I can only do that with the right team around me. So having to recognize for any leader to be able to recognize the opportunities that they have and bring and keep the team surrounded with the signature sense of those opportunities I don't bring. So together we can transform things for better. So that is going to be a challenge all the time. We just have to continue to look at one role at a time and make sure the right person is in that role and address it. Sometimes, you know, people say, hey, you don't have that many people. You can't do things. Let's try if we want to run a mile and if we get closer to a half a mile, that's a half mile progress. But I still want to finish and meet my 1 mile mark and we've done that in motor carriers and I'm sure we will do the similar things adapting in the entire department going forward.
- [22:23]
A
Pavan, you've had some great insights to share with me today. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk. Honestly, if I had more time, I would just keep asking you questions because I've got a lot of them. You've got a big job ahead of you, but God bless you and good luck with that.
- [22:41]
B
Hey, it's my pleasure, Lukas. I'm really glad to be having this conversation and I take pride in what we do and what we are trying to achieve and make sure the country's transportation, transportation systems are transformed and are in a better place.
- [22:57]
A
Thank you again.
- [22:58]
B
Thank you very much.