Georgia DDS asks state to fund identity-verification tech, AI call agent and case management system

The Georgia Department of Driver Services on Monday asked the Senate Subcommittee on Appropriations for Transportation to approve $1,022,000 in one-time state funding to bolster online identity verification, expand an automated voice/chat agent and replace an aging investigations case-management system.

The request comes as the agency reported that 99.91% of Georgia credential holders are Real ID-compliant and said it manages roughly 8.87 million valid driver’s licenses and about 416,000 commercial driver licenses. “We are asking, again, for $250,000” for an address-verification technology, the department’s commissioner said, to guard against fraud in online transactions and to confirm that credential mailings are sent to legitimate addresses.

Why it matters: Department officials told the committee they are seeing more online transactions — including address changes — and want to add layers of authentication to reduce identity theft, identity-based fraud and downstream harms such as fraudulent…