The Internal Revenue Service is using Salesforce Inc.’s artificial intelligence agent (AI) platform, Agentforce, across key divisions as the agency grapples with deep staffing cuts.
It marks the first time the IRS has utilized AI agents as its workforce has declined 25% this year — from 100,000 to about 75,000 employees, according to an Axios report.
The AI system will be integrated into the Office of Chief Counsel, Taxpayer Advocate Services, and the Office of Appeals, said Paul Tatum, executive vice president of global public sector solutions at Salesforce.
After several years of collaboration to modernize basic platform technology in these departments, the IRS is introducing Agentforce to “augment and supplement the work of these departments,” Tatum told Axios. Agentforce will handle tasks such as case summarization and search functions to expedite customer case resolution.
Tatum emphasized that the implementation includes strict limitations on AI’s capabilities.
“Salesforce doesn’t advocate for a blind AI processing tax returns without a human being involved in reviewing and supplementing it,” he said. “It’s an educational process for the public and the government on the safety and trust of the agentic technologies that we’re so excited about.”
While staffing decisions remain with the IRS, the technology aims to help overburdened agents process customer requests more efficiently.
There was initially resistance to AI when the IRS began modernizing its decades-old systems in 2023. “It would be negligence if I didn’t start using those AI tools to take our automation and now go head-to-head with some of the law firms,” Rob Fitzpatrick, senior level counsel for technology in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, told Axios.
Fitzpatrick, who has worked at the agency for 38 years, characterized the changes as unavoidable and suggested IRS layoffs stem from factors beyond AI adoption.
The IRS implementation is part of a broader trend of government agencies incorporating AI into their operational development that also benefits tech companies seeking to expand their customer bases and demonstrate large-scale AI applications to the private sector.
In October, The New York Times obtained internal Salesforce documents revealing that the company had pitched AI tools to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help rapidly expand the agency’s workforce and investigative capabilities. The materials included a five-page memo, a spreadsheet of potential ICE contracts, and presentation slides demonstrating how AI could analyze tip-line information and strengthen investigations.
According to the documents, Salesforce proposed helping ICE nearly triple its workforce by hiring 10,000 new officers and agents expeditiously. The pitch came as CEO Marc Benioff had described federal agencies collectively as Salesforce’s “largest and most important customer” during a September earnings call, representing billions in revenue for the company.
The news report sparked immediate controversy and political fallout. Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway resigned from the Salesforce Foundation board, saying he was “shocked and disappointed” by Benioff’s direction.
Salesforce did not dispute the authenticity of the documents, but declined to comment in detail, citing confidentiality around contracts. The proposal to help ICE expand its enforcement capacity marked a significant escalation from Salesforce’s previous federal contracts, which had already drawn employee protests and public criticism since the company first contracted with Customs and Border Protection in 2018.
