Top AI Execs to Watch in 2025

Jay Meil

Vice President of AI and Data Analytics, SAIC

Over the past year, Jay Meil and his team were proud to advance Tenjin as a modular, open systems architecture designed to orchestrate the entire AI model lifecycle, from data ingestion to inference and dissemination.

Unlike rigid, siloed platforms, Tenjin provides the flexibility to integrate any model, any data source and any upstream or downstream system, ensuring interoperability across mission critical environments.

As a mission integrator, Meil and his team felt it was important for Tenjin to be a “model integrator.” Extensible, malleable and scalable, it acts as an AI command and control center, allowing users to seamlessly manage, deploy and operationalize AI models, whether natively built or imported from other tools. This capability ensures AI driven decision-making remains adaptive and mission ready.

“Jay empowers our full team to think boldly and strategically for how to integrate AI and machine learning to advance our customer missions,” said SAIC Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Lauren Knausenberger. “His leadership is driving the SAIC mindset that we are not just adapting to the future of AI, but we are shaping it.”

Why Watch 

As AI/ML systems become more ubiquitous and critical to decision-making and operations, adversaries are actively developing techniques to manipulate, degrade or deceive them. Meil is working to counter these threats by identifying and mitigating attacks across the AI lifecycle, from data poisoning and model corruption to adversarial inputs designed to mislead or disrupt missions.

Protecting these systems is critical to national security and essential to maintaining trust, operational effectiveness and superiority in the battlespace. Meil is working hard to ensure AI remains a force multiplier rather than a vulnerability.

“AI is not just a tool, it is a strategic imperative,” Meil said. “Our adversaries are exploiting its weaknesses, while harnessing its strengths, and the only way to stay ahead is through continued innovation and teams filled with extreme passion, relentless focus, and decisive execution.”

Fun fact: Outside of AI and technology, Meil is a proud single father of three. He spends his free time fishing in bays, oceans, rivers and streams, enjoying the freedom of open water. He also loves boating, camping, hiking and adventurous pursuits like diving with sharks.