An effort through the Centers of Excellence collaboration between the General Services Administration and the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center has reached new goals in leveraging data as a strategic asset while advancing DOD AI adoption.
A part of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, COE works to accelerate IT modernization for federal agencies by using private sector innovation and best practices. JAIC shareholders and COE members participated in a series of human-centered design workshops to discover essential roles and responsibilities for managing data assets.
According to GSA, these roles and responsibilities will help form a flexible governance framework to manage data holdings that cover missions like cybersecurity, health care, predictive maintenance and business automation.
JAIC Director Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan said the COE partnership with GSA is already paying dividends and “paves the way for the DoD to improve how we manage and leverage data as a strategic asset.”
The COE workshops highlighted stakeholder perspectives across functional areas within JAIC and broader DOD. And by doing so while adopting a user-centric approach, COE and JAIC are shaping the future of data management for accelerating AI initiative adoption. COE is helping JAIC translate best practices into innovative acquisition methods to deliver AI capabilities in data integration, enterprise-scale DevSecOps, and Verification, Validation, Test and Evaluation.
In doing so, GSA is offering a pathway for agency partners to accelerate their own AI journeys, said TTS Director Anil Cheriyan.
“The CoE model gives us an opportunity to share experience gained from industry and federal partners with the JAIC, building on the successes of organizations that have come before us,” he said.
As a result of the partnership, JAIC is advancing DOD’s AI posture by implementing governance tailored specifically to AI initiatives. Plus, rapid, iterative decision-making aligns with the interoperability of an enterprisewide Joint Common Foundation to accelerate and scale AI capabilities — ethically and transparently.
According to COE Executive Director Bob De Luca, the partnership has already led to quick and significant milestones.
“The efforts of the CoE are amplified by the JAIC’s focus on action and immense commitment to the mission, enabling us to gain momentum to scale AI within the DoD — and across the federal government,” he said. “The JAIC partnership allows us to impact the American citizen, not just in defense-specific mission areas, but in broader areas, such as healthcare, cybersecurity, and humanitarian assistance.”