Government agencies are changing to become more efficient and effective. Set up for industrial-era operations, many public sector organizations are hierarchical, function on command and control principles, are labor intensive, and do not sufficiently employ digital tools for handling routine processes. The results are high costs, unresponsive organizations, and public dissatisfaction. People see government as bloated and inefficient, and not serving the public interest. They worry whether government is up to the task of dealing with new challenges in public health, education, transportation, commerce, and national defense. Many individuals do not see government agencies rising to the needs of the 21st century and fear America is slipping behind other nations. But there are new processes coming online that could improve this situation. In this paper, I focus on two applications: robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent automation (also known as cognitive automation). Each is being deployed in federal government agencies and starting to alter how they function. I look at how these tools are being used, what the opportunities and risks are, and how to train the federal government workforce to utilize new technologies in a responsible manner.