b'InsightsHow did you go about modernizing the agencys IT? How do you use technology to transformservice delivery?We have a good understanding about which applications should move from the current client-server environment to theToday we see service expectations have changed. People cloud. Our thirty product teams review their applications toput value on ease and convenience and wonder why the assess not only the ease of migration, but the business case forgovernment cannot adopt a more commercial way of doing doing so. It has to make business sense to move anbusiness. We need to transform the way we serve customers application to the cloud.in the best way possible.There are applications that are sometimes process intensiveOur job is also to provide the best tools for our patent and and/or storage intensiveso it makes better business sensetrademark examiners. For example, our patent examiners for those to remain in our data center. We will continueability to find the best prior art quickly ensures both quality to assess our move to the cloud on an application-by- and timely examination, two primary goals of the USPTOs application basis with a solid business case analysis. MostStrategic Plan. Agency teams have been working diligently of our twenty-year-old applications are client-server based.to improve the search capabilities for examiners so they can We must assess how quickly we can move these applicationsreadily identify patentable subject matter. Our new Patent into the cloud and modernize them, analyzing the trade- End to End Search tool now with artificial intelligence (AI) offs: what we can stabilize and what we can move whilecan help examiners do their vital work more effectively with simultaneously being able to deliver on the agencys mission.swift, easy access to the relevant prior art they need. This tool Since our transformation efforts began, we have stabilizedcurrently provides examiners access to millions of foreign over twenty-six critical systems, and have a plan to modernizedocuments and full English translation documents. based on prioritizing high-value assets.Our teams used TensorFlow and Python to create new Early in my tenure, we focused on security and stabilizationmachine learning (ML) algorithms. We augmented our new for our core IT infrastructure, which helped us transition topatent search tool with machine learning to help examiners remote work seamlessly. With roughly 13,000 staff across thesearch not just for certain words in a patent filing, but the U.S., we operate both a network operations center (NOC) andconcepts. When it comes to using machine learning, our a security operations center (SOC) that runs twenty four hoursapproach involves having employees in the loop to train the a day, year-round. A big part of that security and stabilizationmodels, coach them, and enhance the algorithms. It is all focus has been applying automation to the NOC and SOCabout augmenting examiners, not replacing them.with the help of machine learning (ML) and robotic process automation (RPA). We have reduced alerts caused by falseHow are you using emerging technologies to positives and automated security compliance tasks. shape the future of the agency?We hired Jerry Ma as the director of Emerging Technologies from the private sector. Ma has a phenomenal approach and vision for how to leverage emerging technologies. As we proceed, we need to engage in further proof-of-concept efforts and pilots with emerging technologies, so we can get verifiable results. We need to understand the pros and cons of such technologies as RPA, blockchain, and AI/ML. Today, we are already putting AI/ML models and RPA tools to work for new operating efficiency. I was thrilled that our agency won a 2021 Future Edge award for our success in leveraging emerging technology for our business. As we continue to move fast, were making a significant difference, saving resources and gaining new operating efficiencies. Grounded in our efforts are best practices in the work we do; people across business units create, try, test, fail fast, launch, and learn to make 42 www.businessofgovernment.org The Business of Government'