AI’s Impact on Warfighting Starts With Logistics

The Defense Logistics Agency wants to use AI to fundamentally change how it operates across its supply chain and business functions, including procurement, finance and human resources, CIO Adarryl Roberts said Thursday at the ServiceNow Government Forum in National Harbor, Maryland.

“This is a realization of how AI is really helping the warfighter from a logistics perspective,” Roberts said. “We’ve really realized the acumen of our workforce needs to be enhanced, first and foremost, but we also took a different approach in terms of generative AI, GPT, things of that nature.”

Roberts has been focused on reducing barriers to data and technology access while addressing operational inefficiencies across the enterprise.

The agency explored how it could leverage tools such as ChatGPT, but determined that the agency needed more accurate and deterministic AI systems for its primary mission of logistics operations.

DLA developed a “connected enterprise” framework that explored how AI systems could alleviate complicated logistics problems, Roberts said. The framework intentionally connects people, technology, business acumen and culture to successfully deploy AI at every level of DLA, Roberts added.

“In order for us to be effective as an agency, to get the return on investment, we need to look at end-to-end problem solving,” Roberts said.

Data Fabric and ‘Control Towers’

Because data quality is critical for any AI system to be successful, Roberts said the agency is building a data backbone using a “data mesh” approach. Rather than centralizing all agency data, the strategy focuses on identifying authoritative sources of information and connecting them across systems.

“We’re identifying the authoritative sources of data that we need to utilize,” Roberts said.

Those data sources feed into “control tower” dashboards designed to give senior leaders visibility into logistics operations and enable AI-driven automation across DLA systems.

“Then how do we put that in the control tower review at echelon for senior leadership?” Roberts said. “Then how do you automate and use AI throughout our systems to actually execute the mission? That’s the north star we’ve created over the past year at DLA that really got our AI journey working.”

Reframing AI as a Force Multiplier

DLA has already deployed AI agents in its customer service operations and IT infrastructure, Roberts said. Virtual agents allow mission owners to self-service their queries without interacting with a human, Roberts said.

“We’re like Amazon. Everyone just calls us and said, ‘Hey, where’s my package?’” Roberts said of the logistics process for War Department customers. “You have to call the help desk, who has to go through 24 or 25 different systems to get that answer. We want to make that simpler for our workforce. We also want to make it simpler to the customer.”

Rather than introducing AI merely as a new technology, Roberts said DLA is using AI as a critical “force multiplier” for DLA’s thousands of employees. AI, Roberts said, is not a tool designed for workforce reduction; instead, it is an opportunity to complete their mission sets despite a lack of resources and an emphasis on efficiency.

“We’re very upfront. … We’re not trying to eliminate x amount of jobs or things of that nature,” Roberts said.