Backed By $15 Million, This Startup Is Taking On The Government’s Paper Problem

“The government is drowning in bureaucracy,” said co-founder and CEO Zach Long, as this Maine-based startup leverages AI to streamline complex and time-consuming government workflows.

Founded in 2023 by former Palantir employees Zachary Long, Eric Schwartz, and Ben Fichter, Conductor AI‘s advanced AI-powered software automates the analysis and processing of complex policy documents, streamlining tasks that typically demand substantial human resources.

$38.7 Billion Lost to Paperwork

The Chamber of Commerce‘s recent study reveals that the federal government spends $38.7 billion each year due to inefficiencies caused by manual, paper-based processes, which create bottlenecks in information capture and processing. Additionally, the sheer volume of paper-based policy guidance creates challenges for federal employees to share information and collaborate, even within their own organizations. For instance, despite spending $18 billion on classification and security activities, it is estimated that 50 to 90 percent of classified material is not properly labeled, further hindering collaboration.

Therefore, ConductorAI’s platform streamlines the approval process, which allows agencies to reduce turnaround times from weeks to minutes. This efficiency enables employees to dedicate more time to critical thinking and less time searching for information, ultimately accelerating the delivery of government services.

The AI Bureaucrat

Conductor AI’s platform has revolutionized bureaucratic workflows, notably those within the U.S. Department of Defense, by automating tasks such as export licensure and information release. This is achieved through the automation of regulatory document reviews, where AI streamlines processes by scanning for key information, categorizing data, and interpreting content.

Conduit, the primary product of ConductorAI, is a platform designed to streamline document review and approval processes within highly regulated entities like the DOD, USG, IC, and others. It achieves this by ingesting policy documents, prior approvals, and heuristics, and then atomizing policy statements into AI-enabled agents, rules, workflow steps, and document edits. This allows the platform to function as both a research assistant and expert reviewer, identifying and resolving issues. Conduit is data-agnostic and model-independent, making it adaptable to various customer environments, including classified settings.

The company utilizes approved large language models (LLMs) and their extensive experience developing software for the defense sector to align emerging capabilities with mission requirements.

The startup’s approach has already gained strong validation. The company raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Lux Capital, with participation from F7 Ventures and Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt. The funding will be used to expand the platform’s capabilities to support government agencies, regulated industries, and companies that need help achieving compliance internally or through partners.

As investor Lan Jiang at Lux Capital said, Unlike most defense companies focused on hardware, ConductorAI operates upstream where the real bottleneck exists—the document and compliance workflows that gridlock critical government processes.”

Beyond Defense

While the company currently holds a strong position within the Department of Defense, including the Air Force, Space Force, and Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, and is actively seeking opportunities with other service branches, USG agencies, and defense industrial base customers, it has ambitious plans to expand into sectors such as finance and healthcare. These sectors also face complex regulatory environments where efficient document management is essential for ensuring compliance and preventing errors.