But Pritha Mehra, chief information officer for the USPS, is bullish about her agency’s ability to provide unparalleled customer experiences: “We are the best deliverers in the world,” she winkingly asserted to a giggling crowd of government and industry tech professionals at Wednesday’s “Federal Innovation Series: Leading in the Era of AI” event, presented by Microsoft and FedScoop.
Mehra’s knowing confidence just weeks ahead of the holiday shipping season is seemingly buoyed by two factors: the agency’s apparent progress in Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year strategic plan, and more pointedly, its embrace of artificial intelligence.
“We’ve been using and are continuing to train and refine our models,” Mehra said, “to give you accurate predictions of where your package is, when it’s going to be delivered and then, with it, the exact time. We’re also looking at it from a more predictive sense to … foresee a failure before the purchase.”