Federal Job Cuts Get a Tech Upgrade: AutoRIF Becomes the Workforce Reshaping Tool
Remember the days when federal job cuts involved mountains of paperwork, endless Excel spreadsheets, and stressful human reviews? That era is about to end. The U.S. Digital Government Office, better known as DOGE, is rolling out a rebranded version of its automation software—now called the Workforce Reshaping Tool—and it's nothing short of a game changer for how Washington trims its workforce.
The tool has a clear mission: make layoffs swifter and less reliant on the painstaking hands-on work of human resources teams. It's designed to process huge datasets about employee seniority, veteran status, and performance. Up until now, HR staffers would dig through spreadsheets by hand to figure out who stays, who goes, and who might get a second chance. That slow pace just doesn’t hunt in today’s political climate, where powerful voices push for speedy, sweeping cuts to the federal payroll.
The first agencies lining up for this digital downsizing are big names: the Department of Veterans Affairs—with as many as 80,000 positions on the line—and the IRS, which could lose close to 40% of its workforce if this winds up as planned. And it’s not just theories or projections—since January 2025, more than 260,000 federal workers have either accepted buyouts, opted for early retirement, or been shown the door.
DOGE, Trump-Era Legacy, and the Exit of Elon Musk
DOGE was born in the whirlwind of the Trump administration, intended to inject 21st-century tech into aging government processes and save big bucks on labor and contracts. Officials brag about $160 billion in savings thanks to slashed contracts and workforce reductions, but critics point out that for all the grand talk, concrete tech rollouts have been limited. The Workforce Reshaping Tool is one exception; it's the rare product that could actually remake how federal HR operates at scale.
The rollout is also happening against a backdrop of high-profile personnel moves. Elon Musk, who had been seen as a close advisor to DOGE’s efforts, announced a step back in April 2025 to refocus on his private companies and let federal tech modernization proceed on its own. Whether his absence will speed things up or slow them down is an open question, but it strips away a layer of Silicon Valley gloss from the program.
Some agencies, eager to jump on DOGE’s automation train, have already learned the risks. Amid the rush to cut jobs, errors crept in—employees were mistakenly laid off, only to be rehired after red tape and appeals. That’s left a lot of workers on edge and given ammunition to watchdogs who warn that more automation might just spread bigger mistakes, faster.
Legal scholars, like Nick Bednar from the University of Minnesota, are sounding the alarm about what happens if this new system scales up: "You can cut more jobs, a lot more, and you can do it fast." And that has unions, advocacy groups, and plenty of laid-off federal workers asking whose jobs, exactly, the robots will come for first.
The Office of Personnel Management isn’t slowing down. OPM officials are gearing up for real-world testing and live demonstrations in the coming weeks. Most expect it to push the government another step closer to algorithm-driven workforce management—a world where a few lines of code can decide the fate of thousands.
