The Pentagon’s $800M Effort to Embed AI In Decisions in ‘All Tiers’

By Aaron Boyd 
Source Link

That’s the goal of a five-year task order from the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to Booz Allen Hamilton.

Through its partnership with the General Services Administration’s Centers of Excellence, the Defense Department’s central artificial intelligence program signed an $800 million contract with Booz Allen Hamilton for AI-powered warfighter support tools.

The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, or JAIC, issued a five-year task order—awarded through GSA’s Alliant 2 governmentwide acquisition contract—to “deliver artificial intelligence-enabled products to support warfighting operations and be instrumental in embedding AI decision-making and analysis at all tiers of DoD operations,” according to a release Monday.

Booz Allen Hamilton will focus on identifying and integrating advanced analytical tools with existing DOD datasets to create “a definitive information advantage to prepare for future warfare operations.” The work will include “data labeling, data management, data conditioning, AI product development, and the transition of AI products into new and existing fielded programs and systems across the DoD.”

“The Joint Warfighting mission initiative will provide the Joint Force with AI-enabled solutions vital to improving operational effectiveness in all domains,” JAIC Director Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan said in the statement. “This contract will be an important element as the JAIC increasingly focuses on fielding AI-enabled capabilities that meet the needs of the warfighter and decision-makers at every level.”

The contract is the direct result of a partnership established in September between the JAIC and GSA’s then-newly created AI Center of Excellence. The broader Centers of Excellence program was established in 2017 to act as a modernization advisory service, helping federal agencies identify needs across specific areas like cloud services or customer experience and develop acquisition strategies.

“The CoE and the JAIC continue to learn from each other and identify lessons that can be shared broadly across the federal space,” said Anil Cheriyan, director of GSA’s Technology Transformation Service, which oversees the CoE program. “It is important to work closely with our customers to acquire the best in digital adoption to meet their needs.”

GSA’s Federal Systems Integration and Management, or FEDSIM, office also played a role in the contract award.