Pavan Pidugu, chief digital and information officer at the Department of Transportation, believes that artificial intelligence is not meant to replace human knowledge and skills but to augment them and “to gain efficiency and momentum to achieve what we were lacking yesterday.” The 2026 Wash100 Award winner has contributed a lot in his first year at DOT when it comes to improved, more efficient department policies and talent hiring and retention.
Pavan Pidugu will serve as a keynote speaker at POC’s 2026 Digital Transformation Summit on April 22. This is your chance to ask about his insights on emerging technologies and what his further plans are for tech modernization at DOT. Get your tickets now!
What Are Pavan Pidugu’s Accomplishments as DOT CDIO?
Launching Identity Verification Process for Trucking Credential Applicants
In April 2025, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration implemented a mandatory, enhanced identity verification process for all new applicants registering for a DOT Number through the Unified Registration System to combat fraud, streamline the trucking industry's registration process, and strengthen oversight of commercial vehicle operators.
The registration process used IDEMIA’s platform, the same technology used at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints. The platform aims to consolidate multiple FMCSA systems into a single, user-friendly interface, simplifying registration and compliance tasks for carriers.
In the first 16 days of implementation, 3,392 out of 3,476 users completed the verification, indicating a 97.6 percent success rate, according to logistics solutions provider Royal Courier via LinkedIn.
“To mitigate fraud, we’ve introduced an identity verification system. It’s similar to a TSA security checkpoint, but it’s a streamlined, tech-enabled process to make registration straightforward and able to fight fraud. So with AI and ML, we’re cautiously choosing what’s fit for purpose and how it’s going to make a digital experience that’s simple,” Pidugu said.
“If you can’t do anything in three to six months, there’s no point in doing it. That was a fundamental mantra I brought to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration,” added Pidugu, who started his job in February 2025.
Rolling Out 1Dot, an Initiative Streamlining DOT’s Work
In August 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a new initiative called 1DoT, which is focused on consolidating DOT’s work, including doing away with redundant IT systems.
According to Duffy, the department currently runs more than 425 information systems, many with overlapping roles; 45 systems of which are at the end of their life span across seven data centers running on more than 4,200 servers. DOT also operates 10 to 25 grant systems, four to five registration systems and three to 14 inspection systems, a FedScoop report stated.
In the IT Strategic Plan, “A Path to 1DOT IT,” published in September 2025, Pidugu was quoted as saying, “We are committed to true modernization, retiring outdated, siloed systems, and replacing them with integrated, data-driven solutions that create a seamless flow of information across the Department and with external partners,” adding that, “We will maintain transparency in how funds are allocated, ensure compliance with federal IT policies and reporting requirements, and prioritize DOT initiatives that deliver the greatest public value.”
1DoT has four strategic goals:
- Eliminate technical debt—Consolidate the IT portfolio by migrating suitable systems to cloud-native architectures and ensuring that technology partners are held accountable for delivering measurable business value.
- Become customer-centric—Design and deliver technology around the needs of users and mission partners through customer feedback channels.
- Build obsessive products—Move from project-based to product-based delivery with persistent, mission-aligned digital factories that adopt uniform Agile and DevOps practices, design thinking, and data-driven iteration.
- Grow talent—Invest in the federal workforce’s technical capability via skills assessments, targeted training, rotations and mentorship, competency-based hiring and performance-based recognition.
1DoT builds on DOT’s 2025-2029 IT Strategic Plan. As of February, the department is on its way to completing its Google Workspace move from Microsoft Office, capping a departmentwide effort that put 12,000 users live in 22 days and will bring DOT’s 50,000 employees onto the platform. The six-month effort, a plan to completely modernize the department’s IT infrastructure as part of the 1DoT initiative, was expected to be completed by March 9 for all DOT offices and bureaus, except for the Federal Aviation Administration, which will join the second wave of the migration.
“We probably worked at the pace some people would think not practically possible,” said Pidugu, crediting the General Services Administration’s OneGov for the smooth transition.
The Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Digital Transformation Summit, which Pavan Pidugu is keynoting, will be a seminal forum for GovCons and federal agencies to tackle next-generation evolutions in artificial intelligence, cyber, user experience, enterprise IT and more. Register here.
Modernizing Acquisition Processes Through Six-Month Sprints
With Pidugu’s penchant for getting a project done within six months, he has embarked on a strategy that focuses on automating the acquisition and grant process, leveraging agentic AI to flag errors, draft recommendations and speed up procurement. The six-month sprints are designed to demonstrate IT modernization progress, aiming to prove feasibility and speed before fully scaling new technologies.
DOT has undertaken the consolidation of as many as 14 grant-making systems, as “unifying all of the grant systems into one common product across DOT is going to help us be able to have that visibility,” MeriTalk said.
Integrating AI for Task Automation
DOT, under Pidugu’s leadership, is pushing for agencywide use of Salesforce’s agentic AI platform, Agentforce, to automate manual, tactical and operational tasks, offering customers around-the-clock support and helping generate alerts with optimal mitigation strategies for traffic and infrastructure incidents.
The agentic AI tool would also help optimize operational tasks, such as managing grants and improving safety system monitoring.
Kendall Collins, CEO of Government Cloud at Salesforce, commenting on the initiative, said, “With a secure and reliable [customer relationship management] foundation and trusted AI agents, we’re helping the USDOT deliver a safer, more agile and responsive transportation system for every American,” according to MeriTalk.
Shifting to a Product Focus, Shared Services Consolidation
Pidugu is establishing “digital factories” focused on building software products, veering away from the previous concentration on shared services toward a new model that combines building technology and supporting those who build it.
Functions such as cybersecurity, data, infrastructure, cloud, and portfolio governance will operate as shared services to support the developers inside those factories, helping DOT move from project-based to product-based delivery.
Pidugu, Wash100 Award Winner
Pidugu has been named a 2026 Wash100 Award recipient in recognition of his leadership in advancing federal IT modernization, artificial intelligence adoption and enterprise-wide digital transformation across DOT.
The award honors executives and officials who demonstrate leadership, innovation and impact in areas such as technology, defense, acquisition and policy.
“CDIO Pidugu has earned his first Wash100 Award for setting a strong pace for technology modernization at the Department of Transportation. He has also driven innovation through AI-enabled tools to streamline regulatory analysis and by promoting more agile contracting models to accelerate the delivery of emerging technologies,” said Jim Garrettson, Executive Mosaic CEO and founder of the Wash100 Award.
The Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Digital Transformation Summit on April 22 will spotlight next-generation plans for artificial intelligence, cyber and enterprise IT modernization. DOT CDIO Pavan Pidugu, who is keynoting the event, can provide some insights on the topics. Reserve your seat now!
