NIH Travel Policy AI Chatbot
Description
The AI-powered chatbot is designed to address a key operational challenge: the high volume of routine travel policy inquiries directed toward NIH administrative staff. These questions, often repetitive and time-consuming, divert valuable human resources from more complex and strategic responsibilities.Specifically, the AI chatbot leverages Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide accurate, consistent, and real-time responses to questions related to the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) and the NIH Travel Policy Handbook. By doing so, it significantly reduces the dependency on staff to manually research and craft responses to standard inquiries. In addition, the chatbot serves as the foundation for a self-service portal for the NIH community. This portal empowers employees and stakeholders to independently access authoritative travel policy guidance 24/7—improving efficiency, enhancing user experience, and ensuring policy compliance across the organization.
Detailed example
The chatbot outputs text-based, interactive responses tailored to helping NIH staff plan and manage official travel in compliance with policy. These outputs are designed to be helpful, policy-compliant, user-specific, and non-decisional, serving as a productivity aid rather than an authority for travel approval.
AI / analytics pattern
Generative AI: AI that generates new or synthetic content (e.g., images, videos, audio, text, code).
Automation level / stage
b) Pilot – The use case has been deployed in a limited test or pilot capacity.
Expected benefit
The Office of Financial Management (OFM) envisions this AI-powered chatbot as a critical support tool for NIH staff during the upcoming transition to a self-service travel planning model, aligned with the government-wide shift to GSA’s ETS Next travel system, recently named GO.gov. With this transition slated to begin in 2026, the chatbot will serve as an intelligent, always-available assistant that simplifies the travel planning process for thousands of NIH employees. Enhanced Operational Efficiency.Improved User Experience for NIH Staff.Support for a Modern, Self-Service Government.Increased Compliance and Accuracy.Indirect cost benefit to public. Up to 60–80% reduction in inquiry volume handled by human agents. 160 FTE hours saved per month at the central NIH Travel office. 1000 FTE hours saved per month across the IC Community Travel offices. Drastic reductions in average response times, often from days or hours down to seconds.
Controls / human review
ATO: No; PIA: Not published
Data needed
Federal Travel Regulation and NIH Travel Policy Handbook documents