Platforms and AI: A new approach to government software delivery

For decades, government agencies have faced a familiar trade-off when delivering digital services: build custom solutions that meet their exact needs but require significant time and resources, or purchase Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) solutions that promise faster deployment but often come with hidden complexity and expensive customization. Today, a new approach is emerging that fundamentally changes this equation — the marriage of platform-based development with AI-assisted code generation.

The current policy environment

Two recent policy developments are driving change for federal agencies. An April 2025 Executive Order mandates that agencies prioritize commercial solutions over custom development, requiring written justification for any non-commercial procurement. Simultaneously, the OMB memorandum “Accelerating Federal Use of AI” directs agencies to adopt AI technologies rapidly while sharing custom-developed code across government.

To realize these priorities, agencies must deliver commercial-like speed and cost-effectiveness while maintaining flexibility to meet unique government requirements and rapidly adopt AI capabilities. Traditional approaches to software delivery — pure custom development or standard COTS solutions — struggle to satisfy both requirements simultaneously. The current policy environment demands a new approach that can leverage commercial foundations while enabling rapid, AI-enhanced customization.

The limits of COTS

COTS solutions are often marketed as easy, but the reality is more complex. They typically demand extensive customization for agency business rules, compliance needs, and existing workflows, with lengthy ATO processes and gaps between product and agency needs. Customizations lead to difficult maintenance and upgrades, requiring integrations and workarounds. Vendor lock-in and escalating licensing costs further limit flexibility. The “out-of-the-box” promise rarely materializes, resulting in expensive, rigid solutions that struggle to adapt to evolving needs.

The potential of development platforms

A platform approach fundamentally changes how federal agencies build digital solutions by providing a foundation of shared, reusable technology components. Instead of each project starting from zero, a platform offers pre-built solutions for common challenges: user authentication, data storage, security monitoring, cloud hosting, deployment pipelines, and compliance frameworks.

Just as automakers use shared chassis to quickly and cost-effectively deliver new car models, a technology platform provides a standardized foundation. This allows agencies to build digital services faster and cheaper, focusing custom development only on unique aspects.

As Ad Hoc’s prior work shows, effective platforms enable separation of responsibility that helps narrow each team’s scope and reduces cognitive load. When development teams can focus on building unique features rather than wrestling with infrastructure setup, they can deliver more value, more quickly, more securely.

How AI changes the game

The remaining space where custom code is needed — that narrowed scope of truly unique business logic — is increasingly being filled by AI-powered development tools. Modern AI coding assistants can generate application code, API integrations, data transformations, and business rule implementations with remarkable speed and accuracy.

Modern AI tools also offer knowledge management capabilities that further narrow the scope for custom code. Features like project libraries allow agencies to create centralized collections of coding standards and security requirements that AI assistants reference when generating code. This enables developers to focus solely on unique business logic while AI automatically incorporates agency-specific coding standards and conventions.

A new path forward

Combining platforms with AI offers a compelling new alternative for agencies that directly addresses today’s policy environment. By starting with platform foundations built on commercial cloud services from companies like AWS, Google, and Microsoft, agencies can satisfy the commercial-first mandate while maintaining flexibility to customize what they need. These platforms leverage proven commercial infrastructure while providing government-specific security, compliance, and governance layers.

When custom development is required, AI dramatically accelerates the process while supporting federal AI adoption and code reuse. Teams can iterate rapidly on business logic, user interfaces, and integrations. The platform provides the commercial foundation while AI generates the custom elements that make each solution unique.

This approach delivers key advantages: faster time to delivery through rapid iteration, enhanced security through inherited commercial-grade controls, greater flexibility as applications evolve rapidly, and cost effectiveness through reusable commercial components and AI-accelerated development.

Finding the right partner

Successfully implementing this approach requires a partner with deep experience in government digital transformation. Ad Hoc brings the unique combination of capabilities federal agencies need:

• Proven platform expertise: Ad Hoc has established software delivery platforms at major federal agencies like the VA and CMS, including the foundational infrastructure that powers VA.gov and the Medicare Plan Finder.
• User-centered design leadership: Ad Hoc has extensive experience applying user-centered design principles across major federal digital services, building applications that serve millions of users with measurable improvements in user satisfaction and task completion rates.
• AI integration expertise: Ad Hoc has hands-on experience implementing AI-powered solutions in government environments, including natural language processing for citizen-facing services and machine learning for operational efficiency, while navigating the unique compliance and security requirements that federal AI deployments demand.
• ATO and compliance mastery: Ad Hoc’s deep understanding of the ATO process and FISMA requirements enables us to build platforms with inherited security controls from the ground up.
• Groundwork Delivery Platform: Our Groundwork Delivery Platform provides agencies with platforms assembled from commercial cloud offerings for their needs that obviate the need to rebuild the same cloud infrastructure over and over and spending months on each ATO.

The best of both worlds

The traditional choice between slow, expensive custom development and rigid, complex COTS solutions is out of step with the current priorities around commercial solutions and AI. Platforms provide the foundation of reusable, secure, compliant building blocks, while AI fills the remaining gaps with rapid custom development. This combination creates a new “low-code/no-code” paradigm that delivers the speed and cost benefits promised by COTS while maintaining the flexibility and fit that only custom solutions can provide.

For agencies looking to modernize their digital services or build new ones, this combination represents a third path — one that combines the best of both worlds while avoiding the pitfalls of each.