Frank Bisignano Aims to Make Social Security Administration ‘Digital-First Organization’

The new head of the Social Security Administration (SSA), former Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano, is working to make the agency a “digital-first organization.”

With his private-sector experience and with help from Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers, Bisignano aims to make a technological overhaul of the SSA while staying within its budget request and making human customer service available when needed, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday (June 9).

“I think we should get away from focusing on head count to focus on what our objective is, which is to do a great job for the public,” Bisignano said in the report.

Using more technology and artificial intelligence to power the SSA’s customer service will enable people to do simple tasks without human interaction, thereby freeing up agency resources for other activities, according to the report.

For example, if more people to go online or use the phone to replace their Social Security cards for name changes and other reasons, the SSA could reduce the number of in-person visits that deal with this task — which accounts for about one-third of the traffic at field offices, the report said.

Bisignano has been visiting call and processing centers and field offices to better understand how they work, with the aim of cutting the average wait time on the SSA’s 800 number from the current 19.2 minutes to 12 minutes by the end of September 2026, per the report.

His goals also include boosting the share of benefit claims that are processed on time from the current 83% to 100% and reducing the average processing time for initial disability claims from the current 231 days to 190 days, according to the report.

When Donald Trump announced in December that he would nominate Bisignano to oversee the SSA, the then president-elect said Bisignano’s business background would benefit the agency.

“Frank is a business leader, with a tremendous track record of transforming large corporations,” Trump said at the time in a post on Truth Social. “He will be responsible to deliver on the Agency’s commitment to the American People for generations to come!”

Bisignano’s nomination to lead the SSA was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 6.