TxDOT Has Saved 22,000 Staff Hours a Year With AI. Here's How.

The Texas Department of Transportation has saved an estimated 22,000 staff hours per year by automating invoice workflows — and that’s just one of more than 30 completed or active AI initiatives the agency was running as of January 2026, according to GovTech reporting.

The numbers make TxDOT an outlier in state government, and a useful benchmark as Texas law now requires every agency to catch up.

What TxDOT has built

TxDOT has identified more than 200 AI use cases internally, with upwards of 20 more projects in development. The agency has deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot to more than 940 staff members. Its Enterprise Data Platform connects 51 data sources to support AI-driven analysis.

Completed deployments include invoice processing automation (the source of the 22,000-hour figure), onboarding automation, and traffic incident detection. Planned next steps include a statewide incident detection rollout, predictive maintenance expansion, and AI-assisted permitting reviews, alongside mandatory annual AI training starting this year.

The agency’s CIO, Anh Selissen, sits on the state’s Public Sector AI Systems Advisory Board — a sign that TxDOT’s AI work is feeding into broader Texas government strategy, not siloed inside a single department.

The governance rule that makes it work

One policy underpins TxDOT’s entire AI operation: a “Human-Led, AI-Supported” standard requiring human validation of all AI-assisted outputs before they take effect. The rule is simple enough to explain in a sentence and consequential enough to prevent the class of errors — automated decisions without review — that tend to generate the most institutional damage.

That principle now has statutory backing. Three laws signed June 20, 2025 and effective September 1, 2025 set new floors for AI governance across all Texas state agencies:

• SB 1964 requires the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) to maintain an inventory of state AI systems, develop an ethics code, and mandate disclosure and risk assessments for high-stakes “Heightened Scrutiny AI Systems.”
• HB 2818 creates a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Division within DIR to help agencies modernize legacy systems using generative AI.
• HB 3512 makes AI and cybersecurity training mandatory for state and local government employees, with DIR certifying approved programs.

TxDOT was already operating ahead of those requirements. Most agencies are now building toward them.

What this means for the rest of Texas government

The pack found no other Texas agency with a public AI deployment profile as detailed as TxDOT’s. That absence reflects where most of state government is right now: the statutory framework is in place, the inventory and training mandates are live, and the AI Division at DIR has its mandate — but the operational depth TxDOT has accumulated takes time to replicate.

The 22,000-hour figure is a concrete benchmark worth tracking. If even a handful of agencies can match TxDOT’s invoice-automation savings in their own back-office workflows, the aggregate effect on state government capacity would be significant. The legislative package that took effect September 1, 2025 was designed to create the conditions for that to happen.