46 MAY-JUNE 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Grok also cited a report showing that an unnamed AI model can predict final eligibility decisions correctly with 90 percent accuracy just from the NIV application answers and supporting documentation alone. What a surprise! Perhaps consular officers are already out of work. When asked to justify its answers, Grok replied with “searching the web” for about two minutes. Finally, it cited public statements about future aspirations and small pilot programs as present-day routine, and confused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of AI for immigration enforcement with visa determinations. And that 90 percent accuracy study? It was actually just a guy in Pakistan who published his own article claiming his AI model could do it. Vaporware? With hopes dashed, perhaps AI will go the way of CA’s once-vaunted “ConsularOne” project to revolutionize consular applications, mostly ending up as vaporware. No consular officer would argue that there isn’t room for tech improvements. New and rapidly released policy pronouncements create more burden on the already-strained officer. Meanwhile, our Generation Z entry-level officers are left to figure out what the little 3.5-inch disk icon means in the Immigrant Visa application. As in the rest of the workforce, the future role of AI in consular work is unnerving and largely unknown. Not only does our economy rely on the U.S. consular corps to keep humming, but every visa decision is, indeed, a national security decision. There is little room and less political appetite for error. n No consular officer would argue that there isn’t room for tech improvements.
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