AI can strengthen our safety net — these leaders are learning how

Millions of Americans choose the Propel app to manage their EBT benefits. With the help of veteran program leaders, Propel is now starting to serve as an R&D lab to help state agencies as well. Our focus is helping both public servants adapt to the slate of new policies enacted in 2025. If you are a state government employee, you can access our private AI sandbox for free here.

Propel’s mission is to strengthen the safety net#propels-mission-is-to-strengthen-the-safety-net

When Propel was founded more than 10 years ago, the most accessible way to check your EBT balance from your phone was by dialing a 1-800 number. Today, over 25% of EBT cardholders nationwide use the Propel app to check their SNAP, WIC, and TANF balances and manage their household budgets.

Our 100% free service helps low-income families save time, save money, earn income, and navigate the many different benefit programs they are eligible for — while keeping their data and benefits private and secure. We work tirelessly to create the best possible experience for EBT cardholders — with all the care, craft, and technique we expect from consumer-grade software.

As we look to the next ten years, we are committing not only to continuously delivering the EBT experience Americans deserve, but also to building technology that strengthens the safety net in general.

Fundamentally, we believe that all Americans deserve a consumer-grade experience from their government. Too often that is not the reality today. In the Age of AI, there is a risk that consumer experiences diverge even more. We are committed to ensuring that the most essential touchpoints with government - those with the social safety net - are not left behind.

We’ve already begun to show how AI can help Americans navigate the complexity of the SNAP program. Now we are ramping up our investments to meet the moment.

Introducing Propel’s AI Residency: an R&D lab for the safety net’s next chapter#introducing-propels-ai-residency-an-r-and-d-lab-for-the-safety-nets-next-chapter

Recent policy changes have created an urgent need for fundamentally new approaches to program delivery. For the first time, maintaining the status quo is riskier than innovating.

Meanwhile, AI has matured enough for deployment in sensitive government contexts. Now, our country needs domain experts, technologists, and leaders working together to harness these capabilities in ways that truly serve Americans while strengthening program foundations.

Fortunately, there is a mobilization among state governments, research organizations, and enterprise technology partners to start making that a reality. Propel is stepping up as well, leveraging our unique role and relationship with beneficiaries. Propel’s AI Residency program is structured to do applied R&D that supports state agencies while centering the needs, rights, and interests of the people we all serve. Our initial AI Residents represent forward-looking leaders with deep experience across SNAP and Medicaid:

• Jacey Cooper is an accomplished healthcare executive with over 20 years of experience in Medicaid policy and healthcare delivery system reform. She is a proven leader in driving transformational initiatives at federal, state, and local levels, where she has served as the Director of the State Demonstrations Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, California’s Medicaid Director and Vice President of a public hospital system. Through this work, she has been recognized for her strategic vision, operational excellence, and policy innovation impacting millions of lives. The team Jacey led was a recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Academy for State Health Policy’s Medicaid Innovation award and she was a Modern Healthcare “Up & Comers” Honoree in 2016.
• Shavana Howard has spent more than 24 years as a public servant and currently advises state agencies and organizations on programs, policies, and operational decisions in health and human services. Her work is centered on ensuring that eligible individuals can access the opportunities and benefits needed to reach their potential and achieve economic security. Most recently, Shavana served as Senior Advisor to Food and Nutrition Consumer Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She previously served as the Assistant Secretary of the Division of Family Support for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. Prior to her service in Louisiana, Shavana spent over 17 years at Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services, where she held numerous leadership roles, as well as serving as a case manager and conducting eligibility for programs including SNAP, TANF, Childcare, Medical, and short-term disability.
• Joël McClurg is a seasoned government relations strategist with close to 20 years expertise in SNAP administration and safety net innovation. As the former SNAP Compliance Officer for Colorado's Department of Human Services, he managed regulatory compliance, overseeing all 64 counties' adherence to federal guidelines while serving as the primary liaison to USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. His pioneering work includes designing CO-FARM, an AI-integrated strategic planning tool for local food systems, positioning him as a national thought leader in emerging technology applications in non-profit settings, supplemented by executive education in AI business strategy from MIT Sloan. With extensive experience navigating complex federal-state regulatory environments, he combines technical policy expertise with practical implementation experience.

Together with designers, engineers and data scientists to be announced soon, these veteran program leaders will combine their own expertise with feedback from both state administrators and beneficiaries themselves to address four critical challenges in this new policy landscape:

1. Minimizing paperwork burdens on Americans: New work requirements, shorter certification periods, and increased levels of verification mean that Americans are going to have to give state governments a lot more documents, a lot more often. How can we streamline this process while reducing associated risks?
2. Supporting overwhelmed public servants: Between new policies requiring more paperwork and reduced federal funding, frontline public servants face more customer support calls, more administrative work, and greater overall strain. How can we help them deliver better service more efficiently?
3. Protecting SNAP through accurate payments: If states can’t reduce their Payment Error Rates, their financial liabilities will be so significant it may threaten their ability to deliver the SNAP program at all. How can we use technology to help every state achieve and maintain the accuracy needed for full federal funding?
4. Maintaining dignity and choice under new purchase restrictions: New rules are being introduced that restrict the use of SNAP benefits on things like “candy” and “soda” — but these are fuzzy categories and confusion is likely to be a fixture of the year ahead. How can we minimize the frustration beneficiaries encounter, and use their experience to help states and retailers improve implementation?

An open opportunity to learn and share insights — with no upfront costs or commitments#an-open-opportunity-to-learn-and-share-insights-with-no-upfront-costs-or-commitments

The AI Residency Program is philanthropically funded into 2026, enabling states across the country to learn alongside Propel. States can work with Propel informally, or in structured ways suitable for rapid impact — at no cost to the state.

Our R&D will continue to be documented and shared with the SNAP, Medicaid, WIC and TANF communities, and their feedback will actively guide our experimentation. Ensuring SNAP and Medicaid successfully adapt to serve Americans in this new era is aligned directly with our mission to build technology that strengthens the safety net. You can see the archive of public writing describing recent R&D work here.

If you are a program leader — at any level — that believes in the best possible technology for beneficiaries and the public servants they interact with, we hope you will follow along with this work.