Inaugural ‘GSA Labs’ cohort identifies $229M in potential savings, agency says

The inaugural cohort of the General Services Administration’s internal innovation program has completed six projects resulting in an estimated $229 million in potential savings for the agency, it announced Wednesday. 

Known as GSA Labs, the initiative places selected early- and mid-career GSA employees on small, cross-functional teams to work on projects addressing agency priorities. Roughly 300 employees applied to be in the first group of participants, with 25 GSA personnel ultimately selected for the 8-month program. 

During a panel at the Google Public Sector Summit in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, GSA Administrator Ed Forst said the program was set up because “we want to embolden people, we want to unshackle people from their existing leadership structure.” He added that he was heading directly from the event to the GSA Labs’ inaugural graduation ceremony, where the program’s participants would be showcasing their projects. 

The six projects undertaken through the program were conducted by teams focused on federal contract integrity, website rationalization, workplace experience, employee recognition, Public Buildings Service fee reviews and the impact of artificial intelligence use. 

“Our employees understand our programs and our customers because they work with them every day,” the agency said in a press release. “GSA Labs gave them dedicated time to bring that knowledge together, look at familiar challenges from a different perspective and develop solutions that can be tested and put to work. And by utilizing current staff instead of contractors, the agency is estimated to have saved an additional $1.3 million.”

GSA said several of these teams’ work resulted in significant cost savings, with the website rationalization team identifying “opportunities to decommission 34 websites and consolidate two others, saving taxpayers an estimated $3.6 million in annual cost avoidance.” 

The PBS fee review group also “recommended a new fee structure estimated to generate approximately $195 million in additional annual fee revenue,” while the federal contracting team’s work “contributed to 4,359 hours saved, returning approximately 2.09 full time equivalent (FTE) in capacity, and resulting in $29 million in Canceled Contract Value.”

The projects focused on GSA workplace experience and employee recognition also identified “opportunities to strengthen employee engagement and satisfaction” and new ways to acknowledge high-performing personnel, including the creation of an Administrator Honor Awards program.

GSA’s Super Intelligence impact metrics team — which was rebranded to align with President Donald Trump’s September executive order instructing the federal government to refer to AI with his preferred “super intelligence” term — looked at how the agency could consistently measure the value and risk of using the new capabilities.

“Cohort members identified use cases to evaluate and gather stakeholder input to shape their recommendations,” GSA said.

The agency added that it is already moving to bring the next cohort of employees into the GSA Labs program so it can further build upon its inaugural group’s work. 

GSA Deputy Administrator Michael Lynch, who announced late last month that he was departing the agency, helped launch and head up GSA Labs.