Jason Payne
CTO, Microsoft Federal
As CTO at Microsoft Federal, Jason Payne’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of data, analytics and artificial intelligence across the U.S. federal government to enable missions, enhance citizen services and strengthen national security. His responsibilities include leading strategy development, breaking down barriers to adoption, creating digital infrastructure and scaling AI solutions with partners. He focuses on the importance of responsible AI principles and the parallels of cultural and technical transformation in agencies.
“Artificial intelligence is not just a technological improvement; it is a game-changing instrument that enables the federal government to serve our citizens with remarkable speed, creativity and accuracy,” Payne said. “By using the potential of AI, we can create a future where public service is more agile, data-informed and effective than ever before.”
Why Watch
Microsoft’s Federal organization brings a unique combination of mission understanding, engineering expertise and leading technology to drive improved outcomes in government. As Payne’s team looks to the future, it’s focused on driving AI transformation in three pillars: improving productivity, augmenting cognition and accelerating scientific discovery.
The team is excited about the transformational potential of combining both conventional and generative AI to assist in some of the most common challenges in government ⏤ modernizing legacy code and applications, securing and defending against cyber threats, increasing access to information and more quickly deriving insights and intelligence from large and disparate data sets. By focusing on cloud and AI platform capabilities, the Microsoft Federal team is democratizing access to leading edge technology, driving the next wave of transformation.
“Jason is truly passionate about leveraging AI to achieve mission success, constantly innovating to solve even the most pressing challenges faced by our federal customers,” said Candice Ling, senior vice president of Microsoft Federal. “One of Jason’s many ‘superpowers’ is his ability to simplify complex technical information while expertly explaining the value and potential of AI to any audience. With 25 years of industry experience, Jason is an invaluable asset to our team and the federal community as a whole.”