DOW Restructures AI Enterprise to Accelerate Battlefield Innovation

The War Department is restructuring its AI operations and accelerating adoption of commercial technology as part of a broader effort to become an AI-first organization, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer Cameron Stanley said last week at an AFCEA event in Washington, D.C.

The move comes after the DOW released its AI Acceleration Strategy in January that identifies three areas where the U.S. maintains an asymmetric advantage: warfighting, intelligence and enterprise operations.

“Those are our three trump cards that no other country has, and we’re going to leverage every single iota of runway we have on all those [advantages] to make sure we have the best capabilities on the planet to win and defeat the enemies and the adversaries of the United States,” Stanley said.

Stanley pointed to AI-enabled warfighting and decision-support platforms like Maven Smart System as examples of how AI is already reshaping military operations. He said Maven was used extensively to support planning and execution during Operation Epic Fury’s strikes against Iran, helping identify and coordinate attacks on 13,000 targets over 38 days.

“What we did for warfighting, we have to do across the entire department to meet the secretary’s objective, which is to make the department an AI-first organization. Not AI preferred, not AI-forward — AI-first,” he said.

Strategic Realignment

Earlier this year, the Pentagon realigned the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. Previously a standalone organization focused largely on policy, the office now operates under the DOW CTO and the undersecretary for research and engineering.

The realignment also brings in other organizations such as the Defense Innovation Unit, DARPA and the Strategic Capabilities Office. The realignment “allows us to work across that innovation enterprise in a way that we couldn’t before and really operationalize technology at the speed that the warfighters are demanding,” Stanley said.

Restructuring allows the DOW to aggressively pursue and develop prototype capabilities. Stanley said these pace-setting projects are selected to refine the DOW’s approach to AI delivery. Additionally, the work identifies existing impediments such as the department’s antiquated acquisition system, “which is designed to build [aircraft] carriers in 10 years, not AI systems in six months,” he said.

Agentic AI

The DOW is also making use of agentic AI systems through its Agent Network, which aims to test and develop new AI-based capabilities. This effort uses agentic workflow capabilities to augment operational decision-making. Stanley noted that these tools and models are programmed by military and commercial personnel working together to deliver more effective battlefield outcomes.

A key part of the initiative is encouraging warfighters to experiment more aggressively with emerging technologies.

“Go break stuff, make it better, accelerate, deliver, show us what it can do on the battlefield,” he said.

Acquisition Inflection Point

Stanley noted a shift in the defense innovation landscape about 15 years ago, when private industry overtook the federal government as the dominant source of research and development investments. Over time, the department has increasingly focused on selecting the right commercial technologies to meet mission requirements.

“You don’t need to use an F-35 to deliver the mail. You want to use the right technology solution for the right problem,” Stanley said.

DOW is integrating multiple testing and evaluation capabilities while also working to modernize the underlying systems that govern acquisition, budgeting and contracting. Stanley said many of the department’s procurement and financial systems were never designed to share data or operate in an integrated environment, slowing the delivery of new technologies.

“What we’re trying to do now is really deliver software at speed to try and connect these systems, to try and make things faster,” he said.