Red Tape Rodeo: Can AI Lasso Compliance Without Getting Bucked Off?”

Introduction: Welcome to the AI Rodeo

AI is the shiny new stallion that every public agency wants to ride. But saddle up too fast, and you risk getting bucked into a pit of FOIA requests, procurement purgatory, and compliance chaos. While AI promises efficiency, the reality often feels like herding data cattle with a spaghetti lasso.

In this era of digital acceleration, one truth reigns: AI in government isn’t just a tech upgrade. It’s a governance test. And without smart reins and ethical trail maps, it can drag agencies into uncharted, and very uncomfortable, terrain.

The result? A new breed of red tape where models make decisions faster than anyone can explain them, and the cleanup crew shows up wearing audit badges instead of cowboy hats.

Five Ways AI Bucked the Bureaucracy (Real-Life Bruises)

1. Ghost in the Workflow: AI models silently influencing hiring or benefits decisions, without human review, documentation, or legal standing. One minute you’re scoring resumes, the next you’re knee-deep in a discrimination investigation.
2. Procurement Wrangling: Agencies bought AI-powered platforms with opaque algorithms and recurring licensing fees, unaware they’d need a full-time interpreter to understand the outputs.
3. Shadow Policy-Making: Automation enforces “smart” decisions (e.g., fraud flags, parole risks) without a clear appeal process or even an understanding of how the flags were triggered.
4. Explainability Sinkholes: Vendors say the model “just knows.” IGs, FOIA officers, and citizens say, “That’s not good enough.”
5. FOIA Nightmares: Your AI tool is making public-facing decisions but didn’t log any of them. Oops, now you’ve violated transparency laws and eroded trust.

Lessons from the Wild (Policy Frontiers That Work)

International peers aren’t immune to AI pitfalls, but they’re building smarter fences:

• EU AI Act: Classifies AI systems by risk level, requiring documentation, transparency, and human oversight for high-risk categories.
• Canada’s Algorithmic Impact Assessment: Mandatory pre-deployment evaluation tool that’s public-facing and forces teams to assess bias, fairness, and human rights impacts.
• NIST AI Risk Management Framework (RMF): A voluntary but robust playbook helping U.S. agencies identify, document, and mitigate AI risk before it turns into a headline.

Together, these frameworks send a clear message: your AI can be fast, but it must also be fair, explainable, and audit-ready.

Designing Human-Centered AI Governance

Rather than banning AI out of fear or deploying it out of hype, aim for explainable automation:

• Co-designed with input from legal, tech, and ethics officers.
• Transparent and overrideable, especially in public-facing or life-impacting decisions.
• Equipped with rollback logs, documentation, and dashboards anyone can read.
• Built with a “human-in-the-loop” by default, not as an afterthought.

Think of it as cowboy boots with steel toes. Stylish, secure, and built for a few stomps.

Reflection Challenge

Where in your organization is automation quietly creating invisible policy? Think of anywhere with scoring dashboards, “smart” forms, or backend scripts that no one has reviewed since the pandemic started.

Action Challenge: 30-Day AI Accountability Sprint

• Identify 3 tasks that should never be automated, think approvals tied to legal rights, benefits denials, or disciplinary actions.
• Identify 3 tasks that absolutely should be automated, think invoice validation, password resets, or document classification.
• Conduct staff interviews (not just leadership meetings) to crowdsource overlooked risks and friction points.
• Wrap it up with a “show what we learned” session. Yes, slides are allowed. Pie charts? Optional.

Dr. Rhonda Farrell is a transformation advisor with decades of experience driving impactful change and strategic growth for DoD, IC, Joint, and commercial agencies and organizations. She has a robust background in digital transformation, organizational development, and process improvement, offering a unique perspective that combines technical expertise with a deep understanding of business dynamics. As a strategy and innovation leader, she aligns with CIO, CTO, CDO, CISO, and Chief of Staff initiatives to identify strategic gaps, realign missions, and re-engineer organizations. Based in Baltimore and a proud US Marine Corps veteran, she brings a disciplined, resilient, and mission-focused approach to her work, enabling organizations to pivot and innovate successfully.

Image by Ronald Plett from Pixabay