Technology adoption in government frequently stalls, not because the tools are inadequate, but because the processes surrounding them have not changed. This is the core argument Justin Fulcher has made regarding AI’s role in public-sector modernization, drawing on his background as both a technology entrepreneur and a former senior advisor at the Department of Defense.

Fulcher has described the challenge as institutional drag, a compound problem that arises when outdated workflows, fragmented data systems, and compliance requirements built for analog operations remain in place as agencies attempt to deploy modern tools. Under those conditions, even capable AI systems cannot perform at the level their developers intended. The friction is embedded in the institution, not the software.

Evidence from Federal Service

At the Department of Defense, Justin Fulcher contributed to acquisition reforms that demonstrated what process redesign can accomplish. Software procurement timelines that previously extended for years were brought down to months through targeted changes to how the department evaluated and adopted technology. The outcome was not a function of any single tool. It reflected a deliberate effort to remove the procedural weight sitting between a technology decision and its execution.

That experience shapes how he evaluates AI initiatives today. Tools that generate new compliance concerns, demand extensive workforce retraining, or introduce unfamiliar failure modes into existing systems will encounter resistance that technical merit alone cannot overcome. Successful deployment requires meeting agencies where their operational realities actually are.

Stewardship Over Speed

Justin Fulcher has written that serious work is defined less by certainty at the outset than by stewardship over time. Applied to AI in government, this translates to a specific set of practices: clear objectives, realistic timelines, and a sustained commitment to iteration as implementation proceeds. Agencies that skip these steps in favor of faster deployment often find that initial performance gains do not hold. The technology deployed without process reform tends to inherit the drag of the systems around it rather than replacing them. Follow this page on Instagram, to learn more.

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