OPM to continue ChatGPT deployment following reupped OneGov deal

The Office of Personnel Management will continue deploying ChatGPT and five other large language models after the General Services Administration announced a new OneGov partnership with OpenAI offering agencies reduced consumption-based pricing starting Oct. 1, replacing the previous $1-a-year price. OPM CIO Adam Starr said more than 70% of the agency's employees are active users of at least one of the six LLMs — ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, Codex and Perplexity — and that OPM's June workforce pulse survey recorded a net promoter score of 17.9 on a -100 to 100 scale, with the Office of the Director at +95.7 and the human capital office at +64.1. "I want to continue to offer everyone at OPM multiple tools so that, as the frontier changes, people can move to the best tool," Starr said at the GovExec Government & AI Summit Tuesday, while OPM said it is setting spend limits under the shift from fixed cost to consumption pricing.

OPM to continue ChatGPT deployment following reupped OneGov deal More than 70% of OPM employees are “active users” of at least one of the six large language models they have access to. The Office of Personnel Management will “continue to lean in” on deploying artificial intelligence — including ChatGPT — following the General Services Administration announcement that a new OneGov partnership https://www.nextgov.com/acquisition/2026/09/gsa-unveils-new-token-based-onegov-discount-openai/415908/ with OpenAI will offer agencies reduced consumption-based pricing, instead of the previous $1 a year price, starting on Oct. 1. “I want to continue to offer everyone at OPM multiple tools so that, as the frontier changes, people can move to the best tool, and then vendors can compete for our business every day by offering the best tool,” said Adam Starr, OPM’s chief information officer, at the GovExec Government & AI Summit Tuesday. Starr said private companies should work with GSA on inking OneGov agreements, particularly as it makes procuring technology easier for smaller agencies such as OPM. “I feel like I’m getting the right deal,” he said of the GSA initiative. GSA is currently moving into the next phase of its OneGov program — designed to cultivate deals on technology by treating the government as a single, large customer — as it looks to extend expiring agreements and expand the initiative beyond software https://www.nextgov.com/acquisition/2026/07/gsa-eyeing-onegov-savings-beyond-software-and-tech-official-says/414834/ . Deals for Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini are set to expire at the end of the month. OneGov critics have argued that, as federal employees become accustomed to low-cost technologies, agencies will be locked into continuing to provide access to the technologies and have to absorb higher costs when OneGov deals expire or deal terms change, critics contend. “With this shift from fixed cost to a consumption model, we are working on setting appropriate limits on spend. We aim to keep multiple frontier AI tools in the hands of every employee,” an OPM spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW when asked how the new OneGov partnership with OpenAI will affect agency costs. AI adoption at OPM In addition to ChatGPT, OPM employees currently have access to five other large language models: Gemini, Copilot, Grok, Codex and Perplexity. More than 70% of employees are “active users” of at least one of those AI tools, according to Starr. OPM’s June workforce pulse survey found that the agency had a “net promoter score” 0f 17.9 on a scale of -100 to 100, according to the OPM spokesperson, suggesting employees have a favorable view of the AI tools. The score captures user sentiment of AI by asking employees how likely they are to recommend an approved AI tool to a colleague. The Office of the Director had the highest net promoter score of +95.7 while the human capital office was close behind at +64.1, according to the spokesperson. OPM is using AI for a variety of purposes. As the agency looks to consolidate 119 human resources IT systems into one, one employee is using AI to distill thousands of pages worth of training materials from across the federal government for the new system, said Starr. OPM employees have used AI to build dashboards and rewrite the Customer Relationship Management platform deployed at retirement services contact centers, he continued. To support the adoption of AI at OPM, the agency has stood up training initiatives for employees. Roughly a quarter of the agency has signed up for an ambassador program where employees learn how at least two AI platforms apply to their work and teach five to 10 other people about the technologies, said Starr. The agency also allows vendors to train employees and conduct its own in-house training on topics such as AI platforms and agentic AI. Underpinning OPM’s AI adoption strategy is a framework known as STEPS, according to Starr. The first S stands for signals, which refers to the metrics used to guide AI adoption. The T stands for tools, which refers to ensuring agencies have access to cutting-edge technologies. The E stands for enablement, which covers training, ambassador and other programs that help employees make the most out of AI. The P stands for policies, such as OPM’s recent AI hiring memo https://www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2026/08/opm-memo-pushes-agencies-speed-hiring-ai/415702/?oref=ng-skybox-hp , that explains what AI can and cannot support. The second S stands for staffing agencies with the right talent through hiring initiatives such as Tech Force https://www.nextgov.com/people/2026/05/tech-force-set-out-hire-1000-technologists-last-year-its-onboarded-10-so-far/413833/ . The STEPS framework has informed an OPM program called the AI Governance and Adoption program https://www.opm.gov/news/secrets-of-opm/use-sentiment-impact/ , or AI GAP, which seeks to help other agencies harness AI, said Starr.