Top AI Execs to Watch in 2025: Booz Allen Hamilton’s John Larson

John Larson

Executive Vice President & Head of AI, Booz Allen Hamilton

John Larson’s biggest achievement is Booz Allen being ranked the No. 1 AI services provider to the federal government for the second year in a row.

“This success is supported by our growing footprint of 2,500 AI practitioners and the implementation of our AI Aware training, which provides employees with foundational AI knowledge,” he said.

Booz Allen has formed strategic technology partnerships with companies like Reality Defender, Latent AI, Hidden Layer and AWS to bring the best emerging technologies to the government and accelerate mission impact.

Under Larson’s leadership, Booz Allen’s AI team wasn’t just ranked the No. 1 AI services provider to the federal government for the second year in a row but also grew to over 2,500 AI practitioners, said Bill Vass, Booz Allen’s chief technology officer.

“His strategic vision has propelled Booz Allen to establish an innovative AI framework that systematically harvests learnings and deploys them into reusable frameworks called AI Stacks, ensuring reliable, repeatable, responsible, and secure commercial-grade AI solutions at scale,” Vass said. “John’s unwavering dedication has driven significant business growth, encompassing more than 200 AI service engagements with over 160 clients, securing several of the largest AI contracts across Defense, Civilian, and Intelligence agencies.”

Why Watch

In 2025, Larson and his team are heavily focused on physicalAI, agentic AI and AI economics and DeepSeek. PhysicalAI will create robust, real-world applications of AI that can operate in dynamic and complex environments while agentic AI represents a new paradigm where autonomous agents manage tasks independently, truly accelerating mission outcomes.

“AI Economics and DeepSeek caught everyone’s attention through the innovative approach to AI development, which emphasizes cost-efficiency and decentralization, and has the potential to transform the AI landscape and truly democratize AI,” Larson said.

Fun fact: Larson, an avid cyclist, hit a major milestone in 2024 by completing the Leadville Trail 100 MTB, one of the world’s toughest mountain bike races. The 100-mile course starts above 10,000 feet and climbs past 12,000 feet. Using data from smartwatches, smart bikes and e-trainers to optimize training, he finished in 11 hours and 31 minutes, earning the coveted Leadville Buckle.

See the entire Top AI Execs to Watch in 2025 list here.