Jeff Bohling
CEO, Empower AI
Jeff Bohling joined Empower AI as the chief executive officer in February 2023, and during the early part of the year, Bohling spent most of his time meeting with customers and employees, as well as industry leaders, to learn about the company’s strengths, understand customer pain points, and create a path forward for a company that has enjoyed solving customer challenges for over 34 years.
Early wins included strengthening relationships with customers, building a robust pipeline with broader capabilities, and of course, winning new business and important incumbent contracts. It also included building on Empower AI’s momentum of the last several years, helping to transform the way government works through the combination of human power and automation.
“Joining Empower AI has been an opportunity where my passion for operational excellence and growth have been truly interconnected, and it has been a wonderful, rewarding experience,” Bohling said. “And we are right where we want to be: Operating as a successful, mid-tier company in this market where we’re big enough to accomplish the mission and small enough to really care. That’s our goal every day.”
Why Watch
Bohling’s top priorities in 2024 will continue to be operational excellence, while also hyper-focused on growth, for both the company and its employees. Empower AI recently invested new resources into benefit-improvement programs to help it become an even better place to work around the Washington, D.C., region. The company will also be expanding its technology capabilities in the year ahead to include cloud computing and application development, to ensure federal customers have the capabilities they need to achieve their missions with the most efficiency.
“The year ahead is going to be exciting on a number of levels, especially AI technology,” Bohling said. “It’s where the rubber will finally start to meet the road, and we have a real opportunity to help our customers cut through the hype and apply AI today to optimize their mission.”
Fun fact: Bohling said he has always has strong entrepreneurial spirit, including a time when he founded a startup restaurant in his late 20s. “One thing I’ll say about owning a restaurant… I’ve never worked so hard in all my life,” he said. “But the lessons you learn with an experience like that delivered a lot of knowledge to me, and I use those skills every day. No matter what challenges come your way – whether it’s hiring the right people, raising capital, or finding ways to solve problems creatively for your customer – that entrepreneurial spirit helps you find your way to success.”