40 MAY-JUNE 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FOCUS AI IN DIPLOMACY U.S. embassies and consulates have long relied on reporting to share actionable and relevant knowledge with policymakers in Washington, D.C. It is an arduous task, requiring meetings at post with emerging leaders, activists, and officials at all levels of the host government. Diplomats work to establish trust and write detailed reports about what they’ve learned from their contacts on the ground. But the process has often fallen short, especially when it comes to the fragmentation and transfer of information and the kind of continuity over time needed for effective diplomacy and mission achievement. U.S. national interests are not served by, for example, having a Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) diplomat, who has relationships with leading private sector executives, or a Diplomatic Security agent, with contacts in law enforcement, keep that knowledge in their heads or in agency-specific data silos. Even in a small country like Panama, where I served as head of commerce from 2010 to 2013, more than 20 agencies are represented Daniel Crocker is a former Senior Foreign Commercial Service officer who served as deputy assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasia and as executive director for Western Hemisphere at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In a more than 20-year diplomatic career, he served in Europe and Latin America, as well as in Washington, D.C. He now works as a senior counselor for Veracity Worldwide. Judicious deployment of artificial intelligence could incentivize knowledge transfer and transform productivity at U.S. embassies. BY DANIEL CROCKER Transforming Diplomatic Productivity with AI at the U.S. embassy, creating overlap of authority and balkanized reporting in service of multiple missions. To make matters worse, as Foreign Service personnel move to new postings, as frequently as every two years, that knowledge typically leaves with them, and their replacements have to start all over again. A judicious deployment of artificial intelligence could disrupt this cycle and, if done well, transform the productivity of U.S. embassies. With the help of AI, we can build an outcomesbased culture with adherence to tight metrics. It will not be easy. Diplomats will have to be incentivized, as they are not currently, to transfer knowledge of individuals or issues to a digital format. Also, it could be poorly implemented, simply bolted on to existing operations or not adopted at all by some agencies at post, and that would be a costly but useless exercise. But it is worth trying. No More Business as Usual A fully integrated AI solution is possible with today’s technology, but it is years away from implementation, simply given the cycle time of U.S. government procurement as well as user training and adoption for a globally distributed workforce. That is a feature, not a bug, for this simple reason: Proceeding
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