Law enforcement is the leading DHS use case for AI

The Department of Homeland Security’s most common application for artificial intelligence in 2025 was in law enforcement operations, according to the agency’s AI use case inventory released Wednesday. 

Federal agencies are slated to publish their inventories beginning on Jan. 28, as stipulated by a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget released in April 2025. 

Of a total of 238 listed AI use cases being deployed across the agency, 86 are being employed in a law enforcement capacity, most often at Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which reported 49 and 29 use cases in this field, respectively. Indeed, those two subagencies collectively accounted for over half of all use cases DHS reported in 2025, with CBP at 83 and ICE at 51. ICE’s total number of use cases nearly doubled from 2024 to 2025.

And though the topic categorization for AI use ...