Anyone who has waited on a slow federal process has felt the effect of aging infrastructure. Justin Fulcher, a technology founder who advised the Secretary of Defense, puts a date on the problem.
“Across government, healthcare, defense, and infrastructure, our core systems operate as if it were 1975,” he wrote in an article on institutional renewal. Just before that line, he offered his diagnosis: “The issue is not national decline; it’s institutional drag.”
The Cost of Old Infrastructure
A recent profile expands on the point. Many agencies still depend on systems designed decades ago. Those systems create bottlenecks that slow decisions, strain resources, and frustrate employees and citizens alike. Siloed data and compliance rules written for analog work make matters worse, because each inefficiency compounds the next.
Justin Fulcher argues that the fix starts with operational design. Budget size and staffing levels matter less, in this view, than whether the tools on an employee’s desk let that person work effectively. The emphasis falls on how work actually moves through an agency.
AI as a Bridge
Artificial intelligence enters here as a practical aid. Fulcher has said AI can “dramatically accelerate performance and upgrade legacy capabilities” in federal workflows and defense systems. The profile points to concrete uses such as document processing, data synthesis, routine correspondence, scheduling, and compliance checking. Each can reduce manual effort without requiring an agency to restructure.
His experience lends practical grounding. Fulcher co-founded RingMD, a telemedicine platform active across Asia, and later served at the Department of Defense, where he worked on acquisition reform. Efforts he contributed to shortened software procurement timelines “from years to months.”
Legacy systems cannot be replaced overnight, so any AI tool must integrate with them while remaining auditable and explainable. Justin Fulcher’s broader message is that the 1975-era machinery of government can be upgraded piece by piece, provided agencies stay honest about what the technology can and cannot accomplish. See related link for additional information.
Visit his page on https://www.facebook.com/JustinLFulcher/ to learn more.