America.gov's New AI: 4 Lessons for Designers

Step 1

Start from user needs

America.gov puts a big prompt box on the landing page and cycles it through real situations: "I just got married, how do I change my name?" It starts from the citizen's pain point, not from a list of services. That teaches people how to ask, not just what to ask about.

USA.gov took the same route in its 2017 redesign, shifting from agency-centric to task-oriented, starting from search logs and call-center questions. For your own product, make a sheet:

Then test your longest language, like German, and your narrowest screen. America.gov scrolls long prompts in a marquee so the cropped text stays readable.

Step 2

Trust that people can check

Tap Sources and America.gov lists the agencies behind the answer, with the article titles. For one query, CMS.gov alone listed eight articles. You can open them and cross-check the answer.

Next level: add a last-updated date. Then people can spot an outdated article, and fresher sources can rank higher.

Step 3

Test the edge case

I asked what to eat four ways. The first two got a one-line no. The third gave generic advice, with links I couldn't open. The fourth is the one to copy.

What I can't do → why → what I can do instead → where to go

It said it helps with official U.S. government information and services (what it can do), not daily meal ideas (what it can't). It pointed to SNAP, WIC and finding a local food bank (where to go), with chips for next steps. A "no" that still gets you somewhere.

Phrasing changed the answer. Test your 50 hardest prompts, each a few ways, before and after launch.

Step 4

Make privacy part of the design

America.gov's privacy page promises no account, no tracking and no conversations kept. Some answers are cached for up to two hours, it uses an approximate location, and feedback is anonymous. And the product behaves that way: no login required.

Upload a PDF and it strips personal details in your browser first, using Rampart, an open-source classifier that detects things like Social Security numbers, phone numbers, emails and card numbers (per Lifehacker). The UI shows "Anonymizing" while it works.

Text PDFs only for now. An image receipt wasn't accepted. The privacy page is also a summary, so read the full policy for retention and logging details.

Step 5

Four ideas to take it further

My four ideas for America.gov, and any AI product that serves people through long, multi-step tasks.

1. Build around life events, not services. One timeline across agencies, with reminders.
2. Let people skip to the full response. Long answers reveal slowly.
3. Human handoff with context. A short summary the person checks and opts in to send to a caseworker.
4. Inclusive by default. More languages, read-aloud, and open to people's own AI assistants through APIs or MCP.

Gut check

Your AI can't help with a question. What should the reply do?

Honest verdict

What to take, and what not to

Use it for

Borrowing four patterns for your own AI product: a prompt library from real questions, visible sources, a four-part "no", and privacy that matches the policy.

Skip it for

Treating it as a final verdict. America.gov is new and still changing, and different phrasings gave me different answers, so what you see may not match mine.

Careful with

The privacy page is a summary. For retention and logging details, read the site's full privacy policy.

Take it to work

Four things to make this week

“Email this to myself” opens your own email app with a link back to this cheat sheet. Nothing is sent from this site.

Workflow done.

No streaks and no guilt. Come back whenever you have ten minutes.