NARA Eyes AI-Enabled Records Management System

The National Archives and Records Administration said it wants to use an artificial intelligence-based system to support records management.

NARA revealed in its 2023 AI use case inventory that it wants to use AI to automatically fill metadata for its archival documents. NARA will also use AI to help respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.

The agency did not include any operational AI use cases in its AI inventory but reportedly published them on MAX .gov, a platform for sharing information with the government, FedScoop reported.

Sheena Burrell, chief information officer of NARA, said AI, machine learning and robotic process automation will help the agency automate its workflow. Burrell shared that the agency is developing an AI governance life cycle and evaluation criteria for AI assessments.

NARA has been ramping up its digital modernization efforts since 2022.

In November, the agency said it expects the Electronic Records Archives 2.0 system to be fully operational in the first quarter of 2023. ERA 2.0 uses cloud-based tools for digital records processing and transfer and a new dashboard for request tracking.

In late October, NARA copied 205 million pages of government records into the cloud, keeping it on track with its goal to digitize documents by 2026.