When a winter storm hits, students across the country hope for a snow day. Kindergarteners in North Carolina wish for two inches while high schoolers in Minnesota dream of an avalanche. The difference? Northern cities have fleets of snowplows ready to clear the roads before morning. Where southern states, two inches shuts everything down, because they lack the infrastructure to manage it.
Government agencies are familiar with this dynamic: how the right tools determine whether you can handle a sudden surge in volume. In recent years, an avalanche of FOIA requests has rolled through U.S. government agencies. Artificial Intelligence has made it easier and quicker for people to submit these requests. The volume of requests exceeding the infrastructure capabilities of departments, leaving local, state, and federal agencies buried under record requests and slipping behind deadlines.
The solution: manage the surge with AI-powered tools
1.5 Million Americans Are Asking Questions
In the FY 2024 government agencies:
- Received 1.5 million FOIA requests, a 25% increase from the previous year.
- Saw 92% of agencies receive more requests than in FY23; 43 agencies received more than double their previous year's volume
- Ended the fiscal year with 267,056 backlogged requests
- Processed 27% more expedited requests
- Processed 18% more complex requests, with 73% of complex requests taking longer than 20 days
- Spent $723.4 million on FOIA-related activities, with only 0.34% of costs covered by collected fees
The FY25 report will be released in the spring of 2026, but from the stories slipping out of government agencies, it’s clear this volume is only increasing and for many it’s reaching a breaking point.
When AI Writes Public Records Requests
Artificial Intelligence has been cited as a driver of this increase in requests to public agencies. AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are making public records requests easier to write up and submit. In some school districts, public records requests have almost tripled in volume, and the requests themselves have gotten more complex.
Constituents now use AI to write their record requests. So instead of receiving a short email with a clear request, schools get a 3-page AI-generated ramble. These expansive documents are harder to decipher and make it take 3 times longer to figure out what people are actually asking for. This has backlogged the process, led to a need for increased headcount, and a demand for stronger tools.
Government agencies like the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Trade Commission are also being swamped by AI generated requests, some working to further specific political agendas. The Heritage Foundation reportedly filled over 100,000 FOIA requests within two months using AI. A government employee involved in processing these requests shared they “sometimes come in a rate of one a second.” To keep up that rate FOIA employees are spending a third of their workday focused on processing requests solely from the Heritage Foundation.
Layoffs and Shutdowns: A Perfect Storm
The overall volume has gotten so overwhelming that Federal employees are starting to express concerns about the future of FOIA. This is compounded by the continuous reduction of the federal workforce, many FOIA officers being targeted in the reduction.
In June 2025, the mass federal layoffs caused some FOIA operations to cease all together. One CDC Government Information Specialist who was laid off in June shared that
“hundreds of FOIA requests were still sitting in whatever stage they were in when the layoff notice came. ‘As far as we know, nobody’s working on them.’”
This backlog was only exacerbated when the United States government shut down from October 1st-November 12th. During which agencies posted FOIA-specific notes on their website announcing that they will be unable to process requests. Though official numbers haven’t been released, the assumption is that when and if government workers came back to their desks, the hills of FOIA requests they left behind had become mountains.
The Cost of Delay
Chris Opila, an attorney at the American Immigration Council pointed out that even though this is frustrating for those who may have to process them it’s equally punishing for requestors. Because “How do you inform public debate when, by the time you get the documents, the debate has passed 2 years old, and is essentially out of date?”
There’s a real tension brewing within the FOIA process. American citizens want information at heightened rates and have access to tools to heighten their efforts. While government employees don’t have the resources—tools or workforce—to meet that appetite.
This mismatch between supply and demand claws at the efficacy of the Freedom of Information Act as an agent of democracy. And like those sunny states overwhelmed by snow, government agencies need better infrastructure to handle the volume.
Building Better Infrastructure
That’s where tools like Logikcull come in. Because as snow days have taught us, handling volume depends on the infrastructure of your tools. And a good tool can make the difference between total shutdown and business as usual.
Logikcull helps government agencies by streamlining the end-to-end process of collecting, processing, searching, reviewing, redacting, and producing responsive documents. Empowering teams to respond faster, more consistently, and with stronger defensibility, while fitting into tight government budgets.
How Logikcull Supports Record Request Workflows
Let’s walk through how a public record requests or FOIA workflow runs in Logikcull:
- Collect & centralize data
Logikcull can collect and centralize data directly from common platforms, including Google Vault, Slack, Microsoft 365, and Box. This reduces the manual effort of chasing data across departments and systems.
- Process and make data searchable
After ingestion, Logikcull performs automated processing that supports 900+ file types and makes content searchable. This processing also includes automation like metadata sorting, virus detection, and automatic deduplication which can significantly reduce the dataset prior to review.
It also supports making hard-to-search content searchable (e.g., text in embedded images) via indexing and deep text recognition, helping teams ensure they don’t miss responsive content.
- Search, filter, and quickly find responsive records
Logikcull provides robust search & filtering tools to narrow large datasets and locate responsive records quickly. For public record response workflows, this includes using filters like:
- Date ranges
- Custodians
- File types
- Keyword searches
- Review workflows with labeling, tagging, and quality control
For FOIA/right-of-access style requests, Logikcull supports a structured review approach where documents can be labeled by disclosure status, such as:
- Full Release
- Partial Release (Redacted)
- Withhold
- Privilege
Tagging also supports workflow controls like second-pass review and the “four-eyes” principle (two reviewers validating decisions) and can be tailored to an agency’s needs.
- Built-in redaction capabilities (including sensitive/personal data)
Logikcull includes redaction tools to help protect confidential information prior to production. It also supports features like automated PII detection and advanced redaction capabilities (including text & audio redaction).
- Produce and download responsive sets efficiently
Production is simple in Logikcull. To produce follow a few clicks use existing templates or customize your own. Manual steps are reduced and you can improve consistency across repeated requests.
- Defensibility, audit trails, and compliance support
Logikcull supports detailed audit trails to maintain traceability of actions taken during the requested lifecycle. It also includes security controls such as role-based access and SOC 2 Type II aligned security with encryption, helping support compliance needs.
The Path Forward
The FOIA avalanche isn’t slowing down, but the solution isn’t to limit transparency or reduce public access to information. The solution is to equip government agencies with the infrastructure they need to meet the moment. Democracy depends on transparency, and transparency depends on tools that work.
