According to Department of Defense officials, the Department of Defense (DoD) can use AI technologies to streamline and accelerate procurement timelines, thereby stimulating innovation from a wide range of businesses that have traditionally been overlooked in defense contracting.
Maynard Holliday, assistant secretary for critical technologies in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Technology, explained that a common complaint from industry is that the Defense Department's contracting process is too slow.
“One of the things our colleagues in Silicon Valley told us was, [they] We need to get a deal done quickly [they] I can't wait a year [or] “We had to make payroll in six months,” Holliday said at the Defense One Tech Summit on June 18.
He explained that AI technology, especially large-scale language models, will increasingly be used in administrative tasks to streamline and accelerate contracting processes within the Department of Defense.
Holliday said AI technology will not replace human involvement, but will complement human capabilities by automating administrative tasks, providing deeper data analysis and enhancing overall contract management procedures.
The result, he said, could be that “non-traditional startup companies unfamiliar with the intricacies of the Department of Defense acquisition and procurement process can more efficiently access available contracts.”
Holliday explained that the Department of Defense is now leveraging technology to ease access to contracting opportunities, providing multiple pathways for non-traditional contractors to get involved.
“[The DoD] “There are a number of windows that are implementing technology to allow non-traditional organizations to access Department of Defense contracting opportunities,” Holliday said.
He particularly highlighted the Critical Technology Roadmap established by the Critical Technologies Office, which sets out the technology direction for the Department of Defense to align industry, academia and international partners toward common goals.
Holliday further emphasized that the foundation of using AI within the department, whether it's for contracts, administrative tasks or operational goals, is trust in both the systems and the technology.
“We want to increase that level of trust in a combat situation so that warfighters, commanders and users have confidence in the system and have that continuum of trust so they can say, 'OK, we can engage that system that's coming at us,'” Holliday said.
