No longer an emerging disruptor, artificial intelligence is an operational reality embedded across enterprise and government systems. Rather than existing as a standalone capability, AI today is woven into workflows, powering everything from decision-making and predictive analytics to cybersecurity, software development and customer experience. Generative AI has also accelerated how organizations interact with data, enabling faster insights, natural language interfaces and new ways to scale human expertise.

This isn’t about humanoid robots or distant sci-fi scenarios. The real impact of AI lies in how it augments human judgment, improves speed to mission and unlocks value from vast, complex data environments. The following executives are leading this evolution. They include general managers, chief data scientists, chief AI officers, CTOs, CEOs and presidents in industry and government. What they all have in common is their drive to use AI to realize more efficiencies in government, while ensuring its safe and ethical use.

Abir Ray

CEO, Expression

Abir Ray leads efforts to scale Expression’s VOR Platform and ARGUS multi-agent reinforcement learning system into production deployments across defense and intelligence community programs, while continuing to deliver on major prime contracts including the NTIA Federal Spectrum Data System and DISA SIS and MSP contracts.

He also co-authored “Spectrum Aware Systems Engineering: AI, Digital Twins and MBSE for Electromagnetic Operations” (Wiley-IEEE Press) with Dr. John Stine of MITRE. The book bridges urgent defense mission needs with rigorous systems engineering methods agencies can adopt today.

“The biggest unlock for federal missions is not larger models — it is better systems engineering around the models we already have,” Ray said. “Our focus at Expression is putting agentic AI inside the operational fabric of government in ways that pass audit, hold up under adversarial conditions and give analysts back the time to do the work only humans can do.”

Why Watch

In 2026, Ray’s team is heavily focused on operationalizing agentic AI inside high-assurance government environments where accuracy, explainability and auditability are non-negotiable. They are advancing VOR’s data, workflow and agent modules alongside ARGUS’s multi-agent reinforcement learning stack to support spectrum operations, intelligence analysis and cyber decision support. Several deployments will move from pilot to program of record this year, he said.

Ray’s team helps customers operate more efficiently by replacing brittle, manual analyst workflows with closed-loop agentic systems that handle high-volume, low-judgment work and surface the decisions humans actually need to make. On programs like NTIA FSDS and DCSA’s counterintelligence analytics work, that turns weeks of spectrum or CI triage into hours, with full provenance and human-in-the-loop control at every step, he said. The platforms are architected so government teams retain ownership of the data, the models and the decisions, which is what makes the efficiency durable rather than dependent on a single vendor, he added.

“Abir is one of the most technically credible founder-operators we work with in the federal market,” said Devin Talbott, founder and CEO of Enlightenment Capital. “He has built Expression into a platform company with genuine IP in agentic AI and spectrum operations, and the discipline to deliver on some of the most demanding programs in the Department of Defense and intelligence community. What sets him apart is the combination of deep research instinct and operator pragmatism.”

Fun fact: Ray is a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee researching Lyapunov-based stability boundaries for multi-agent reinforcement learning on USRP B210 software-defined radios. His ideal weekend is a draft chapter in the morning followed by hanging out with friends in the afternoon.

Benji Hutchinson

CEO, Babel Street

Benji Hutchinson led Babel Street’s transformation into an AI-first company aligning product, technology and go-to-market teams around a shared vision and executing on it in less than a year.

In May 2026, Babel Street launched Insights Investigator and introduced Agentic Risk Intelligence, replacing manual investigative workflows with governed AI agents that help analysts surface threats and make critical decisions in a fraction of the time. The result is a renewed growth trajectory and durable differentiation across national security, threat intelligence and commercial risk markets, he said.

“Benji has set a clear vision for where Babel Street is headed and aligned the entire company behind it with conviction,” said Jen Snell, chief marketing officer of Babel Street. “He pushed us to think bigger about AI and what it can purposefully do for our customers and their missions. We’re not just making analysts faster: we are fundamentally transforming how intelligence work gets done. Under his leadership, we haven’t just wrapped our stack in an AI co-analyst, copilot or chatbot — we’ve truly taken OSINT into the agentic era.”

Why Watch

In 2026, his team is heavily focused on defining and leading the agentic risk intelligence category, combining governed AI agents, data dominance, elite tradecraft, and transparency and auditability, to support critical missions across national security and commercial markets. As demand for identity and supplier risk intelligence and situational awareness continues to accelerate, Hutchinson’s teams are helping organizations surface the signals that matter from overwhelming volumes of structured and unstructured data.

They are modernizing and moving intelligence work beyond manual processes and toward human-in-control systems where AI agents continuously investigate, analyze and deliver decision-ready insights at machine speed. Hutchinson said analysts at the Center for Intelligence Research, Analysis, and Training report now saving 30-60 minutes per source reviewed and cutting the effort to produce a finished intelligence product by more than half.

“The most rewarding part of this work is bringing AI-first, agentic technology directly to the people defending our national security,” Hutchinson said. “We’re not chasing AI for its own sake — we’re building human-in-control systems that turn overwhelming volumes of data into real-time decisions, so the analysts and operators on the front line can act faster and with greater confidence than ever before.”

Fun fact: Hutchinson serves on the President’s National AI Advisory Committee advising early-stage technology startups. He enjoys reading about the business history of foundational technologies, such as semiconductors, personal computing, computer vision, operating systems, robotics, the origins of AI, and space exploration.

Brandy Durham

Chief Data and AI Officer, MANTECH

Brandy Durham has led the charge to bring together MANTECH and Elder Research into one unified data and AI practice. This integration combines deep expertise and innovative capabilities with mission scale to help clients move from ideas to practical, working solutions, she said.

Creating MANTECH’s Overlapping Resource Tool, which uses AI to help identify duplicative software across the enterprise, is one way the company has recently helped streamline client operations, reduce cybersecurity risks and uncover significant cost savings, she said.

“It’s a practical example of how data and AI can help agencies make smarter decisions with the resources they already have,” Durham said.

Why Watch

“Brandy has been instrumental in bringing together MANTECH’s strengths to accelerate how we deliver data and AI capabilities for our clients,” said MANTECH CEO and President Matt Tait. “Her leadership reflects exactly what our clients need: the ability to understand the mission, execute with technical depth and bring practical solutions forward that help organizations make better decisions and achieve measurable results.”

In 2026, Durham’s team is building a commercial-first, mission-focused portfolio centered on MANTECH’s Seeing It Solved approach. That means helping clients spot the real issues behind their toughest data challenges, clinch the execution with experienced teams who can move solutions from concept to operation, and bring everyone along through the training and support needed for adoption, she said. That focus helps clients make better decisions, act faster and see measurable results from their data and AI investments, Durham said.

“I have the privilege of leading an extraordinary team of technologists and mission experts who are passionate about helping clients solve real problems,” Durham said. “The best solutions are driven by strong partnerships with our clients, commercial innovators and the universities helping develop the next generation of talent. Together, we’re focused on turning data and AI into practical capabilities that make a meaningful difference.”

Fun fact: Durham is a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a discipline she has practiced passionately since age 8. It has taught her perseverance, focus and the value of lifelong lessons she brings to her work in data and AI innovation.

Cameron Stanley

Chief Digital and AI Officer, Department of War

Cameron Stanley leads the acceleration of DOW’s adoption of data, analytics and AI to generate decision advantage. He also serves as senior official for the applied AI critical technology area.

He came to the role from Amazon Web Services, where he served as national security digital transformation lead. Before that, he spent over two years in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, where he led the Defense Intelligence and Security Enterprise’s data and AI efforts across a $4 billion intelligence portfolio. There he built the first intelligence-specific large language model development platform, using generative AI to handle textual product development, literature review, document workflow and QA/QC work that had required vast amounts of manual effort, saving tens of thousands of labor hours while improving output quality.

Earlier, Stanley was chief of Project Maven, the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team. He led the largest AI algorithm development and deployment program in the department, setting the strategic vision while managing a cross-functional team of 52 and over $400 million in research and development funding to deliver an end-to-end agile data analytics and AI platform.

As command science advisor at U.S. Southern Command, he was principal advisor to the commander on emerging and disruptive technology threats. He spent four years in London as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s liaison to the U.K., serving as senior DTRA representative to the U.K. Ministry of Defence and deputy national program manager for counter-improvised-threat cooperation with allied nations. He also stood up the Technology Strategy Division within the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization.

Earlier roles include energy technology development analyst at Concurrent Technologies Corp., where he led the Air Force’s “Energy Horizons” technology outlook, and senior consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton supporting DARPA’s international programs.

Fun fact: Stanley’s career began as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.

Carmen Krueger

Corporate Vice President, US Federal, Microsoft

Carmen Krueger’s team helps agencies transform efficiency by embedding AI through solutions like Copilot directly into day-to-day government workflows.

This enables agencies to automate routine work, accelerate insight generation and make faster, more informed decisions while maintaining control and trust, she said. By combining AI with secure cloud platforms, Microsoft is simplifying complexity and delivering greater speed, precision and mission impact with humans remaining at the helm of every decision.

“I am most proud of our focus, determination and renewed collaboration in this modernization journey,” she said. “We have a significant number of agencies that have opted into our OneGov offer. It provides the foundation of where we are now launching the delivery of secure, enterprise-scale AI to government, moving from experimentation to real mission impact. The result is measurable progress enabling federal customers to modernize faster, operate more efficiently, and unlock new levels of mission performance.”

Why Watch

In 2026, Krueger’s team is heavily focused on bending the curve on innovation, delivering sustained, strategic advancements that strengthen citizen services, national security and critical infrastructure. They are scaling agents that take action — not just answer questions — by deploying secure, governed AI systems that operate across the full stack from cloud to edge, grounded in each agency’s mission context.

“AI represents one of the most significant opportunities to transform how government delivers on its mission,” Krueger said. “Our focus is on ensuring agencies can harness that power securely, pairing intelligent systems with human leadership at the helm to turn innovation into meaningful outcomes for the public they serve.”

Through OneGov, Microsoft is making the new era of agentic AI accessible at scale, ensuring every deployment keeps a human at the helm for oversight, accountability and impact, Krueger said.

“Carmen is driving a fundamental shift in how government leverages technology to achieve its mission,” said Chris Barry, corporate vice president of U.S. public sector industries at Microsoft. “She combines deep operational expertise with a bold vision for AI, enabling agencies to move faster, operate more efficiently, and deliver greater impact at scale. Her leadership is setting the pace for secure, responsible AI adoption across the federal landscape.”

Fun fact: Before entering the technology industry, Krueger served in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General Corps. That experience instilled accountability, discipline and mission-first leadership. It continues to shape how she leads teams and navigates complex, high-stakes environments today.

Cesar Tavares

Partner, Emerging Technology Practice, CTO Office, IBM, US Federal Market

A core member of IBM Federal’s CTO office, Cesar Tavares is steering key AI initiatives and contributing to the growth of the IBM oLabs federal innovation ecosystem, designed to close the gap between technological possibilities and operational realities.

Tavares embraces the energy that comes with showing federal IT leaders and decision-makers how AI can make life easier for federal personnel, strengthen governance and deliver cost and workflow efficiencies. He brings this enthusiasm to the table in helping federal partners accelerate innovation and deliver more predictable, mission-driven technology solutions.

“Through rapid prototyping, co-creation sessions, and practical AI implementation strategies, we help agencies reduce uncertainty, validate ideas faster, and focus investments on solutions that can deliver measurable mission impact,” Tavares said.

Why Watch

Helping agencies operationalize agentic AI securely, responsibly and at enterprise scale will be the chief focus for Tavares and his team in the year ahead.

“We are particularly focused on governance, orchestration and building AI systems that can integrate into real mission workflows instead of remaining in isolated demonstrations,” Tavares said. “We see tremendous opportunity in combining AI with infrastructure modernization, edge technologies, and human-centered design to improve government outcomes.”

IBM Agent Stack encapsulates this focus. Tavares describes Agent Stack as the type of open-source approach to deliver agentic AI solutions government must have in place. Agent Stack, created in partnership with the Linux Foundation, enables an open-source, service-supported approach to deploying, orchestrating and operating multiple AI agents, thus reducing infrastructure burden and making it easier for an enterprise to adopt numerous agentic AI toolkits.

IBM oLabs has also developed a FedRAMP-certified federal intelligent and data automation platform (called ATOM) as well as advanced edge AI capabilities used by agencies today, including CXEdge, which fuses disconnected sensor feeds to provide an always‑on situational awareness solution requiring minimal to no connectivity.

“The most important conversations around AI are no longer about what the technology can do — they’re about how we operationalize it responsibly, securely and in ways that genuinely improve outcomes for people,” Tavares said.

Fun fact: Tavares was born in a small village in northern Portugal and immigrated to the U.S. as a child. Outside of work, he studies philosophy, history and the long-term societal impacts of technology developments. He’s also passionate about building things, whether that’s emerging technology labs, side projects or ideas with his children.

Chandra Donelson

Strategic Advisor for HR IT Modernization, Analytics, and AI, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower & Reserve Affairs, Department of the Air Force

Chandra Donelson moved into one of the more consequential data jobs in the Department of the Air Force this year, taking on the strategic advisor role within SAF/MR in March 2026. She drives the reform and modernization of IT, analytics and AI across the human capital enterprise, supporting roughly 700,000 airmen, Guardians and their families across the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, with the goal of delivering workforce decision advantage through technical solutions.

She came to the post from the Space Force, where she served as chief data and AI officer and director of data, artificial intelligence and software, steering data, AI, software and Mission Partner Environment work across a portfolio of over $4 billion. There she led three consecutive USSF data and AI plans, scaled enterprise AI and strengthened partner integration.

In 2024, she concurrently served as acting chief data and AI officer for the Department of the Air Force, where she launched NIPRGPT, stood up the DAF AI Services Environment and built the department’s data and AI governance structure while managing a $100 million portfolio. Before that came six-plus years at the Army, including deputy chief data officer for the G-2 intelligence directorate.

Alongside her civilian work, Donelson serves as senior enlisted leader for data, AI and innovation at Air Combat Command, leading data and AI transformation efforts to enhance mission readiness.

Fun fact: Donelson is a published children’s author. Her “Data Detective” series, including “The Data Detective at the Airport” and “The Data Detective at the Carnival,” introduces young readers to data literacy through mystery-solving.

Christopher O’Connell

Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Alliances, Rhino.ai

Chris O’Connell runs go-to-market for Rhino.ai, a fast-growing D.C.-area startup making waves in agentic software modernization and spec-driven development. The company already boasts some of the largest global customers across financial services, energy and software industries, and is applying its commercial experience to mission-critical efforts across federal civilian and defense agencies, he said.

“Chris has brought immediate energy and passion for driving innovation for our government customers, helping them think differently about what’s possible with a true AI-based SDLC,” said CEO Adam Branch, who has built and sold multiple successful companies in the D.C. area.

Why Watch

O’Connell, a guest lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University on disruptive innovation and digital transformation for the past six years, has done this before. He was an early executive at Appian Corp., a market-leading low-code automation software company in McLean, Virginia, and drove significant growth as vice president of public sector sales and global head of partners and alliances over his 17-year tenure.

In less than a year, Rhino has seen significant software revenue growth, was named AWS’s inaugural Pattern Partner for GenAI-Based Modernization and was listed by HFS Research as a “Market Leader” in its 2026 Agentic Technology Report alongside AWS, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and ServiceNow.

With AI rapidly advancing and the government looking to leverage commercial best practices to deliver more effectively and efficiently, O’Connell sees Rhino as a unifying platform to uncover and redefine the systems, processes and business logic for legacy modernization and transformation efforts.

“The speed and cost of creating code is no longer the problem for enterprise software,” he said. “What’s required is deep context, so agentic development provides the right architecture, airtight security, and outstanding mission outcomes.”

He highlighted examples of agency customers reducing delivery times by up to 70% when leveraging Rhino’s AI platform.

Fun fact: Despite a demanding work schedule, O’Connell has been a highly successful varsity boys soccer coach at Dominion Christian School in Herndon, Virginia, winning four championships. He and his wife of 30 years have three adult children and volunteer in their church’s youth program, where they met in junior high school.

Cutter Brenton

Chief AI Officer, Tyto Athene

Stepping into the CAIO role and leading Tyto Athene’s TALON team, Cutter Brenton’s biggest achievement has been redesigning and rebranding Tyto’s IP generation function around a core set of differentiated integration solutions that directly drive customer value.

Brenton has also expanded the use of AI tools across Tyto’s internal operations — including business development, contracting, pricing and research to sharpen execution and accelerate decision-making. Most notably, Brenton and his team have developed an Agentic Vulnerability Research tool that has already generated 10+ demonstrations and active collaborative research engagements with clients.

“Cutter has done in months what most leaders take years to accomplish — he’s transformed our innovation engine from a portfolio of interesting ideas into a machine that delivers measurable outcomes for warfighters,” said Peter O’Donoghue, CTO of Tyto Athene. “His fingerprints are on everything: the team structure, the quantum practice, the AIenabled tooling, and the urgency that now runs through all of it.”

Tyto Athene is also directly aligned with the administration’s call for speed, efficiency and measurable AI adoption, advancing higher-TRL products and solutions procurable through prioritized acquisition mechanisms like CSOs, OTAs, and SWAP.

Through TALON, Tyto is bridging the R&D gap by deploying its own capital ahead of DoW 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funds, proving it can operationalize solutions faster than traditional R&D cycles. “Our compute cluster and innovation lab let us collaborate with customers on real-world problems ahead of the RFP and requirements cycle, pushing out IP at our own expense to accelerate mission-ready outcomes,” Brenton said.

Why Watch

In 2026, Brenton and his team are focused on real-world implementations of technology that drive measurable mission outcomes, not tech admiration. They are investing at the unique intersection of cyber, quantum and network/platform infrastructure to deliver dynamic, secure mission solutions, anchored by a state-of-theart compute innovation center where they’re funding R&D and integrating solutions ahead of customer demand. Together, these investments will establish Tyto as one of the strongest AI- and agentic-enabled development shops in the federal market, Brenton said.

“Our customers are focused on outcomes — what’s working, what’s delivering, and what’s moving the mission forward,” Brenton added. “Across cyber, AI, quantum, and software applications, the question isn’t ‘what can we stand up,’ it’s ‘what does the customer need to succeed, and how fast can we get it there.’ We’re not here to admire problems or build slideware, we’re building one of the strongest AI-enabled SDLC shops on the block to deliver proven mission focused solutions.”

Fun fact: Brenton competed as a powerlifter and Olympic weightlifter. These days, his toughest audience is his two daughters, ages 5 and 7.

David Appel

Vice President of Global Government, National Security and Defense, AWS

David Appel had a defining year in 2025. In October, AWS launched its Secret-West Region, expanding classified computing capacity for defense and intelligence missions. Appel also secured the company’s $50 billion AI and supercomputing infrastructure investment, Amazon’s largest public sector commitment, accelerating federal innovation at scale. The OneGov GSA agreement he helped drive streamlined procurement and removed barriers to cloud adoption.

His leadership fed directly into mission outcomes: Idaho National Laboratory accelerating nuclear energy with AWS AI, Lawrence Livermore integrating AI at the National Ignition Facility and the Defense Innovation Unit optimizing air logistics. A partnership with Virginia Tech launched AI workforce training, and his thought leadership shaped policy discussions on GenAI, modernization and federal technology transformation.

Why Watch

In 2026, Appel is heavily focused on delivering the first-ever purpose-built AI and supercomputing infrastructure for the U.S. government, backed by Amazon’s up to $50 billion investment that will add nearly 1.3 gigawatts of compute capacity across all classification levels. AWS is expanding access to advanced AI capabilities — and giving agencies the freedom to choose the right model for the right mission through Amazon Bedrock.

“That model optionality means federal agencies can accelerate critical missions, from national security and cybersecurity to scientific research and energy innovation, without being locked into a single vendor’s roadmap,” he said. “This positions America to lead in the next generation of computational discovery, removing both the technology and procurement barriers that have held government back. We’re investing alongside our government customers to help them break through the constraints that have historically slowed technology adoption: budget cycles, appropriations timelines, and lengthy procurement processes.”

Programs like GSA OneGov and AWS’s accelerator initiatives (the Genesis Accelerator, the Warfighter Capability Accelerator) put AWS credits and technical resources directly into agencies’ hands so they can stand up AI capabilities now, not two fiscal years from now, he added.

The result is that agencies move from pilot to production faster, apply AI to real operational workloads, and start seeing efficiency gains while their traditional acquisition processes are still catching up. The company is compressing the timeline between identifying a capability need and running it in production.

“I’m grateful to lead a team that wakes up every day thinking about how to put AI in the hands of
the people protecting and serving this country,” Appel said. “And I’m grateful to our government customers for trusting us to move fast alongside them.”

Gary Wang

CTO, DMI

As chief technology officer of DMI, Gary Wang leads the company’s AI vision, strategy and enterprise adoption, positioning DMI as an AI-enabled IT services leader across federal, state and commercial markets. He is responsible for driving the AI-First AI-Centric business strategy at the company.

Wang oversees DMI’s Enterprise Offerings, which deliver enterprise-grade innovations for all DMI business portfolios, with a focus on advanced AI capabilities. His leadership has yielded secure and mission-ready AI solutions that are embedded across all services DMI delivers and enabled rapid and reliable integration of AI technologies into customer environments with tangible business outcomes.

He has led the development of DMI’s AI platforms, AI products, and AI service accelerators with a key focus on delivering the AI capabilities that customers can control, manage, scale, and afford. “We are embedding intelligence into every service we deliver with security, trust, and affordability,” Wang said. “AI is not just about LLMs and all the cool features in a lab environment. It takes a deliberate and systematic approach to address unique customer needs and manage changes both organizationally and technologically. Our strategy is to deliver measurable business results and mission outcomes at scale with operationalized AI.”

He is also actively advancing co-innovation with federal customers, leading demonstrations, solution engineering and AI adoption initiatives with agencies. His work includes developing agentic AI control frameworks, intelligent automation platforms, and enterprise knowledge systems to improve operational efficiency and user experience.

“Gary Wang has been a driving force behind DMI’s AI vision and execution,” said Rocky Thurston, DMI CEO. “He brings the rare combination of technical depth, strategic judgment, and customer focus needed to turn emerging technology into meaningful outcomes. His leadership has helped DMI advance practical, mission-focused AI solutions, and this nomination is a well-deserved recognition of the impact he is having on our company, our customers, and the broader industry.”

Why Watch

Wang is focused on advancing AI systems that customers can trust, control, operationalize, and afford to and driving AI adoption with effective change management.

“Our priority is building AI systems that are governed, trustworthy, affordable, and operationally embedded,” Wang said. “That means advancing agent-based automation, strengthening AI governance and ensuring our solutions meet the highest standards for security and reliability.”

Under Wang’s leadership, DMI has developed a portfolio of enterprise AI solutions, including Document AI (LumiDocTM), Knowledge AI, Agentic AI Factory for ITOps (AgenticOperonTM), Application Lifecycle Management AI (CodeSphereTM), and AI-in-a-Box. These capabilities have been deployed to automate complex business processes, improve decision-making, and significantly reduce cycle times across contract programs and DMI internal operations.

Wang is also leading efforts to:

• Embed AI across core IT services, including infrastructure, service management, customer
  experience management, cybersecurity, and software engineering
• Expand reusable accelerators and AI solution blueprints to accelerate customer outcomes
• Strengthen responsible AI frameworks aligned with federal requirements
• Build workforce AI fluency through training, communities of practice and hands-on innovation

“We see the real opportunity in how AI transforms operations and improves outcomes—not just the technology itself,” Wang said.

Fun fact: Wang came to the United States to pursue doctor degree in science more than 30 years. He combines deep enterprise technology leadership with a background in scientific research and innovation. Outside of work, he likes reading books on history, investment, technology, and travel.

Jason Balser

Senior Director, AI & Data Strategy, RELI Group Inc.

With Jason Balser’s leadership, RELI Group moved from AI interest to AI execution by building the internal strategy, governance, workforce enablement and solution frameworks needed to responsibly apply AI across federal missions.

This includes launching RELI’s AI Foundations Learning Path, creating its AI Maturity Assessment Framework and helping implement emerging technologies like agentic AI into practical, governed solutions for client operations. The result is a clearer path for using AI to improve speed, quality and mission outcomes.

“Jason has played a critical role in shaping how we approach applied AI across the enterprise,” said Chief Innovation Officer Sarah Sanchez. “From establishing thoughtful guardrails and advancing responsible AI practices to developing enterprise training and helping teams understand the practical value of AI within our solutions, he continues to lead with both vision and purpose. He understands that applied AI is not simply about adopting new technology, but about enabling smarter outcomes, improving mission delivery and creating meaningful value for our customers and teams.”

Why Watch

In 2026, Balser’s team is heavily focused on operationalizing AI in ways that are practical, secure and mission-aligned for government customers. They are prioritizing agentic AI, data intelligence, program integrity and AI-enabled workflow modernization while keeping human oversight and governance as the guiding factors of those implementations. The goal is to help agencies use responsible AI to improve decision support and accelerate their operations.

RELI is aligning with the administration’s efficiency priorities by helping agencies modernize operations, reduce manual burden, and apply technology in ways that produce measurable mission value rather than technology for technology’s sake, he said. RELI’s focus on applied AI, data intelligence, program integrity and operational efficiency directly supports efforts to streamline workflows, improve oversight and make better use of existing federal data and systems.

They are also emphasizing practical implementation models, including commercial and configurable platforms, automation, agentic AI, and human-in-the-loop review, so agencies can improve productivity while maintaining accountability, security and trust.

“I believe the purpose of technology is to serve people: to improve our lives, expand our capabilities and create space for the work and relationships that matter most,” Balser said. “When we lose sight of that, technology can have the opposite effect, undermining the very things it was meant to support. That belief shapes how I approach AI: not as a replacement for people, but as a tool to help us do our best work.”

Fun fact: Balser enjoys keynote speaking and delivered a TEDx talk last year on the power of lifelong learning.

Dr. Joe Norton

Chief Information Officer, LMI

This year, Dr. Joe Norton’s team at LMI launched AI Hub, the company’s home base for accessing and using approved AI at work, built on the same secure-by-design principles they bring to federal customers. Every tool on the platform has been vetted, every access pathway is governed, and every employee gets a clear on-ramp.

“Joe has led the build of an infrastructure that frees our people to do what they do best — and does it securely, at scale, in a way that reflects the standards we hold ourselves to as a federal technology company,” said LMI CEO Josh Wilson. “AI Hub is what responsible, growth-oriented AI enablement looks like in practice.”

For a company that helps the federal government make AI operational in secure environments, it matters that LMI holds itself to that same standard internally so it can securely use the tools that bring its mission expertise to life, he said.

Why Watch

AI Hub is the foundation; the real work in 2026 is driving adoption across the business and making AI a baseline capability, not a specialty, he said.

“We counsel our clients to integrate their AI in order to leverage it, rather than slap it on as a layer, and this is us walking the talk,” Norton said. “We’re scaling role-specific agents and pipelines and building the kind of AI infrastructure where we can maximize execution without having to worry about access.”

Norton said shadow IT is the real security risk — because when employees can’t find approved tools, they find their own. AI itself isn’t the competitive edge anymore; the edge is having the architecture, governance and culture to put it to work reliably and securely, because that frees you up to actually create solutions, at speed, he said. AI Hub removes that friction by putting every vetted resource in one place, so people can move fast inside a secure framework rather than around it.

“AI is no longer a future capability — it’s an operational requirement,” Norton said. “Our job isn’t to tell people to wait; it’s to give them secure, trusted tools they can use today. When innovation is easy and governance is built in, adoption becomes an advantage rather than a risk.”

Fun fact: Norton came up through the technical side of IT before moving into leadership. When he pictures AI enablement, he considers not just architecture but access. The question that drives him is: How do you make AI work securely and reliably at scale, not just in a pilot? “That’s the same question our customers are asking, and it’s what AI Hub is built to answer,” he said.

Max Thompson

Product Portfolio Director, SAIC

Max Thompson helped lead the transformation of SAIC’s AI and data portfolio from mission-specific innovations into scalable products and enterprise capabilities that can be deployed across government customers.

“Working alongside an exceptional team, we’ve matured proven technologies into reusable solutions that help organizations operationalize AI faster while reducing cost, complexity and procurement friction,” he said. “This work is helping bridge the gap between AI experimentation and mission execution.”

SAIC Vice President of Technology Rana Barzegar said Thompson brings a passion that goes beyond the technology itself and is driven by delivering the right solutions to solve customers’ most complex problems.

“What truly motivates him is creating meaningful outcomes for the missions we serve,” Barzegar said. “He is regularly called upon to lead internal forums that both demystify AI and showcase practical, customer-focused use cases. Max leads with a relentless and focused determination and seamlessly translates complex AI potential into real-world, mission-critical impact in this rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.”

Why Watch

In 2026, Thompson’s team is focused on building the next generation of AI infrastructure for government missions. Their vision is an AI control plane that enables organizations to seamlessly orchestrate traditional analytics, machine learning, large language models and autonomous agents while applying the appropriate level of governance and human oversight. When paired with federated data capabilities that make trusted information available wherever the mission needs it, they believe this approach will define how government organizations scale AI from isolated use cases to enterprise-wide mission advantage.

Thompson said his team is helping customers move beyond purchasing individual tools, contracts or labor categories and instead focus on acquiring measurable mission outcomes. By integrating existing systems, reducing data silos and delivering reusable capabilities rather than one-off solutions, they help organizations achieve greater speed, flexibility and long-term value while maintaining ownership of their data and mission processes, he said.

“We believe the people closest to the mission should own their future,” Thompson added. “That means helping customers retain ownership of their data, integrate the systems they already have and avoid unnecessary dependency on any single vendor. Our job is to deliver outcomes, not lock-in, and to build enduring mission advantage that remains with the customer long after we’re gone.”

Fun fact: Thompson is passionate about retired racing greyhounds and has shared his home with several over the years. Despite being one of the fastest dog breeds in the world, they’re famously calm and spend most of their day sleeping on the couch, he said. “They taught me that appearances can be deceiving and that performance often comes from focus rather than constant activity,” he said.

Nirmal Agarwal

Vice President, Data Analytics and AI Practice Lead, ICF

Nirmal Agarwal’s biggest recent achievement has been helping accelerate ICF’s transition from AI exploration
to AI operationalization to help clients deliver mission-critical programs more efficiently and effectively.

Building on strong foundations in people, technology and innovation, Agarwal has focused on connecting those capabilities, moving ideas from concepts to operational solutions and helping clients translate emerging technologies into measurable outcomes.

In the process, Agarwal also helped expand AI and data modernization approaches beyond his health
background to support agencies across defense, homeland security, transportation and civilian
markets.

“Nirmal quickly established himself as a catalyst for AI and data modernization across ICF’s federal technology services,” said Janak Kalaria, ICF senior vice president of engineering and emerging technologies.

“He brings a unique ability to connect emerging technologies with practical mission outcomes, helping teams move from concepts to operational solutions while strengthening technical capabilities, growth strategy, and innovation. His leadership has accelerated how we think about AI, modernization, and technology-driven mission impact across federal markets.”

ICF is also focused on technology-enabled modernization that delivers measurable mission outcomes faster, more efficiently and more cost-effectively. They’re leveraging AI, automation and cloud-native approaches to streamline operations, improve decision-making, reduce manual effort, and identify fraud, waste and abuse across federal programs.

Equally important, ICF is shifting from presentation-driven discussions to prototype-driven execution, helping agencies rapidly validate ideas, demonstrate value and scale solutions that improve efficiency, effectiveness and mission impact.

Why Watch 

In 2026, Agarwal’s team is focused on helping agencies move beyond AI pilots and into scaled, operational deployment through AI-ready data platforms, agentic AI, and modern cloud-native architectures. Across civilian and defense organizations, Agarwal and his team are seeing a fundamental shift toward reducing technical debt, consolidating platforms, and building the data foundations needed to support advanced analytics, autonomous workflows and large-scale AI adoption. The agencies that succeed will be the ones that treat data integration, governance, and modernization as strategic enablers of AI, not technical afterthoughts.

“Impact comes from connecting strategy, technology, and execution,” Agarwal said. “We’re helping teams move quickly from ideas to practical solutions while leveraging AI, modern data platforms, and emerging technologies to accelerate mission outcomes. The agencies that realize the greatest value from AI will be those that invest as much in data foundations and operating models as they do in the technology itself.”

Fun fact: Whether solving puzzles or exploring new places, Agarwal enjoys finding patterns, connecting ideas, and bringing fresh perspectives to complex challenges.

Rick Hubbard

Chief Scientist, AI, Core4ce

Rob Morris

Senior Vice President, Digital Transformation, CACI

Since taking on his current role in November 2021, Rob Morris has spearheaded cross-functional projects to optimize insights and operational processes across CACI. During the past several years, he has been committed to making data more accessible, consistent, and reusable across the organization.

This work began with data democratization to ensure that information from core business systems could be accessed in standardized ways to support analysis and decision‑making. To achieve this, Morris and his team created shared data environments, improved structure and data practices, and established repeatable approaches for analytical solutions. Building on this foundation, they developed analytical and predictive products that gave business functions better
visibility into trends, operations, and performance.

These steps positioned the team to prepare CACI for the current wave of AI. Using enterprise data, they began organizing around three key areas: AI mindset (AI-first thinking and responsible use), AI operations (embedded, governed workflows), and AI outcomes (measurable impact, scaled deployment).

“This multi‑year foundation ensures that CACI’s enterprise-wide AI adoption is not an isolated technology shift but an extension of a broader transformation already underway,” Morris said. “Our goal for 2026 is to make AI a practical, everyday resource that enhances how the entire organization operates.”

Why Watch

In 2026, Morris is determined to continue equipping CACI’s entire organization — 27,000 employees — to work more effectively with AI. This means continuing to broaden enablement and working closely with business and technical leaders, so AI becomes a natural part of how people work, decide and collaborate. Morris’ team will deliver expert AI tools to enrich the work that teams perform today, including complex workflows, data‑intensive analysis, and decisions that need consistent, reliable support.

“Rob has been instrumental in building the data and AI foundation that allows CACI to move from experimentation to real, scalable impact,” said CACI Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Jason Bales. “He brings together vision and execution, embedding AI into everyday workflows in a way that is practical, governed, and focused on outcomes.”

Rod Fontecilla

Chief Innovation and AI Officer, Revolutional

The achievement Rod Fontecilla is most proud of is building and scaling Revolutional’s AI Labs innovation platform. Today, the platform hosts over 60 minimum viable products (MVPs) that the company’s teams designed to support a wide range of missions across the federal government, from fraud detection to health research to workflow digitization. Revolutional can move from concept to working prototype in weeks, not months, iterate based on user feedback and scale what works. Equally important, Fontecilla extended use of the platform into corporate innovation. The company’s business development, capture, HR and finance teams all use AI-powered applications on the platform to sharpen competitive intelligence, streamline operations and drive business growth. That dual purpose, serving both external missions and internal operations, has made it a true enterprisewide transformation engine.

The single biggest lever today is collapsing the gap between writing software and proving it is safe to ship. In federal IT, the bottleneck often is not development itself; it is the verification, security review and compliance documentation that follow. Revolutional’s AI Coding Control Plane embeds that work directly into the development workflow, so evidence is generated as code is written rather than reconstructed weeks later. That helps agencies modernize legacy systems faster while strengthening their audit and security posture, instead of trading assurance for speed.

“Rod’s leadership has helped make AI practical, mission focused, and scalable across Revolutional and the government missions we support,” said Damon Griggs, CEO of Revolutional. “Through our innovation lab, he has worked across the business to connect emerging technology with real customer challenges, giving teams a way to rapidly test use cases, build working prototypes, and move promising ideas closer to mission impact. That ability to translate AI into practical capabilities is exactly what government customers need as they look to operate more efficiently and deliver better outcomes.”

Why Watch

Revolutional is moving past the era of AI as a question-and-answer tool into a world where autonomous agents can reason, plan and execute multi-step workflows. Building secure, auditable agentic architectures is essential for government adoption at scale, and Fontecilla is focused on embedding AI where it drives measurable value across everything the company does, to make AI a foundational part of how it works, not just a niche capability.

“The accomplishment I am most proud of is not just the number of AI prototypes we have built, but the team behind them and the discipline they bring to applying AI in real federal environments,” he said.  “They do not treat AI as a demo or a shortcut. They treat it as an engineering discipline that has to stand up to mission, security, and compliance requirements. My priority is to keep supporting that team as they turn useful ideas into practical capabilities that create measurable outcomes for our customers.”

Fun fact: Fontecilla is a master-level chess player. Chess has taught him more about strategic thinking, patience and reading your opponent than any business book ever could: think several moves ahead, adapt when the board shifts and know when to sacrifice short-term advantage for a stronger position. Any fellow executives want a match?

Sam Nazari

Chief AI Architect, Amentum

Sam Nazari’s biggest recent achievement has been establishing Amentum’s AI operating model, which includes an AI hub powered by a self-developed AI tool to manage, prioritize and track AI across the company while also providing AI governance, visibility and prioritization.

Amentum also developed a secure AI enclave architecture that enables its teams to innovate rapidly while complying with Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification and federal regulations. Together, these initiatives transform isolated AI pilots into scalable, enterprise-wide capabilities, empowering the company’s government and commercial customers to deploy cutting-edge AI solutions effectively and efficiently.

Amentum is helping government customers operate more efficiently by reducing the time and risk required to adopt AI capabilities, while providing pre-accredited tools, security postures and vendor relationships. This streamlined approach eliminates the need for individual programs to start from scratch, accelerating deployment and delivering mission-ready AI solutions faster.

“Sam possesses an extraordinary depth and knowledge of the AI industry and has supported the most advanced AI projects in government through his work at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),” said Jill Bruning, Amentum CTO. “He’s our Yoda of AI – wise beyond measure – with the people connection skills to cater to requests from both internal and external customers.”

Why Watch

In 2026, Nazari’s team is heavily focused on operationalizing secure, mission-grade AI solutions that transition from proofs of concept to dependable systems in highly regulated environments. The team is investing in multi-enclave architectures and partner ecosystems to ensure its capabilities can scale seamlessly. Ultimately, the goal is to make “compliant” and “cutting-edge” synonymous by delivering advanced AI technologies that are not only innovative but also fully aligned with the stringent requirements of government and commercial customers, without compromise.

“By building secure, scalable AI architectures and governance frameworks, we’re helping teams move from isolated pilots to enterprise-grade solutions that are both advanced and fully compliant,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s about empowering government and commercial organizations to deploy transformative AI faster, more effectively, and with confidence in even the most regulated environments.”

Fun fact: Nazari began his formal education in the liberal arts to become a writer before he switched to engineering.

Steven Aberle

Founder & CEO, Rohirrim

For decades, the buy side and the sell side of defense acquisition have spoken past each other across a wall the system was built to keep standing. Rohirrim’s biggest recent achievement was building across it. The company launched UnifiedAcquire and completed the first platform to govern the entire continuum as one, the requirement and the response together. The wall between buyer and seller was never a law of nature. It was a choice, and Rohirrim made the other one.

Behind every slow award is a team of talented people burning their nights as the error-correction layer for a broken interface, parsing, reconciling, reformatting and re-checking work that should never have fallen to a human in the first place. UnifiedAcquire removes up to 90% of that overhead and logs every decision it makes, so oversight lives inside the system instead of being reconstructed after the fact. Agencies that once took months to award now move in weeks, and they never trade away compliance to get there. The point was never to make government faster for its own sake. It was to give the people defending this country their time and their judgment back.

Why Watch

In national defense, speed is the line between deterring a war and fighting one, and the acquisition system meant to arm this country and its allies still moves at a pace set 40 years ago. Industry treats acquisition as two sides of a coin, the buyer and the seller, each locked in its own language and its own tools.

Rohirrim sees it differently. The company sees one continuum, and is building the architecture of a single nexus of data that runs from the first line of a requirement to the moment a capability reaches the field, with the Unified Acquisition Platform built to put it to work. History punishes mismatches. Through speed-of-need acquisition, Rohirrim intends to eliminate that mismatch. No adversary should wake up to an advantage, and this is the reason the company exists: to rewrite the architecture of modern acquisition so this country keeps the mantle of the Arsenal of Freedom.

“Rohirrim does not separate failure from progress,” Aberle said. “They arrive together or they do not arrive at all. Every breakthrough we achieve came out of a corner we were backed into, where the only moves
left were the ones I would have been too comfortable to try. At Rohirrim we do not survive failure. We mine it.”

Fun fact: Most people see the company and the vision, Aberle said. What they don’t see is the cost. He said the mission has demanded a level of sacrifice he had never faced before. What makes it sustainable is a team willing to carry the same weight, and a mentality he had to build on purpose. He became a stoic and stopped treating the hard parts as obstacles between him and the work. The hard parts are the work. The obstacle is the way, and once you believe that all the way down, there’s nothing left in the path to resent.

Susan K. Davenport

Chief Data & Artificial Intelligence Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Department of the Air Force

A member of the Senior Executive Service, Susan K. Davenport serves as chief data and artificial intelligence officer within the Office of the Chief Information Officer spanning the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. She develops and implements strategies for enterprise data management, analytics, digital transformation and responsible AI to drive innovation across the Department of the Air Force.

Davenport brings over 35 years of experience in intelligence, acquisitions, cyber operations and advanced space technologies, primarily supporting the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. Before her current role, she served as senior advisor for defense innovation in the Concepts, Development and Management Office, where she created and implemented innovative capabilities and determined operational efficacy for cyberspace, information and applied technology requirements supporting intelligence activities and operations.

She spent 16 years at the NRO across a range of senior roles. As deputy in the Office of the Chief Engineer, Systems Engineering Directorate, she led end-to-end closure, risk, readiness, schedule and requirement activities for the NRO enterprise. As director of the Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate’s Research Ground Group, she led an organization using small-sat ground systems, AI capabilities and residual space assets to deliver disruptive technologies advancing ground and space layer capabilities for the NRO, Defense Department and intelligence community.

As director of the Customer Group in the Communications Directorate, she managed onboarding, budget and operations for a billion-dollar FYDP portfolio, including the National Reconnaissance Commercial Cloud Services, the agency’s on-premise infrastructure and the NRO’s data centers. She also served as director for two mission centers in the Ground Enterprise Directorate and was a key contributor to standing up the NRO’s Future Ground Architecture.

Davenport led a successful military career, joining the active-duty Air Force in 1989 as a signals intelligence collector, commissioning as a communications and information officer and retiring in 2013.

Fun fact: Davenport was elected to the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Board, and she called her time at HKS as a National Security Fellow the highlight of her career so far. She attended as a National Security Fellow in 2020–2021 and is giving back as a member of the board.

Zach Curtis

Vice President of AI Innovation, Fed/Civ, Koniag Government Services, LLC

Zach Curtis spearheaded transformative AI initiatives across KGS and federal customers, most notably leading the Small Business Administration’s registration experience modernization and achieving a 40% AWS cost reduction, delivering nearly $5 million in annual savings. He architected and deployed enterprisewide agentic AI capabilities that provide thousands of KGS employees with secure access to generative AI resources, enabling significant productivity gains while safeguarding proprietary information.

Curtis also played a significant role in positioning KGS as the first Alaska Native Corporation to achieve AWS AI Competency and establishing comprehensive AI governance policies and usage frameworks.

KGS is aggressively aligning with the current administration’s mandate for a more efficient government by deploying cutting-edge AI and automation technologies to streamline federal operations.

For example, the Army Contracting Enterprise is saving 687,000 hours per year through AI and automation tools KGS developed for the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement. These savings represent approximately $37 million in annual cost avoidance.

Continually working to reduce Procurement Acquisition Lead Time — the interval from solicitation to award — directly contributes to the Army’s goal of delivering capabilities to soldiers faster. The team’s achievements were recognized with the 2026 ACT-IAC Innovation Impact Award, selected from over 120 submissions across the federal sector and presented jointly to KGS wholly owned subsidiary Tuknik Government Services, LLC and ODASA(P).

“Zach Curtis exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation-first mindset that are foundational to KGS culture,” said Kevin Wideman, KGS CEO. “His commitment to responsible innovation and proven track record of delivering enterprise-scale AI solutions that enhance mission capabilities and reduce costs help position KGS as a leader in AI for Government service delivery. People like Zach make us better every day and inspire the next generation of innovators across our company.”

Why Watch

In 2026, Curtis and his team are working on the next evolution of enterprise AI by developing multi-agent Kanban teams and self-improving AI platforms enhanced with organization-specific skills and the latest AI technologies. His team is also enhancing cybersecurity operations by using AI to remediate vulnerabilities much faster while strengthening the security posture for both KGS and federal government customers. Curtis’ innovative approach to AI maturity and governance positions him at the forefront of practical, mission-critical AI implementation in the federal sector.

“We were early adopters of Generative AI for internal use at KGS,” Curtis said. “This experience and the valuable lessons learned directly benefitted our Government customers, enabling us to provide innovative and transformative solutions for Federal Agencies to enhance their mission capabilities while realizing cost savings. It is gratifying and rewarding to deliver on the promise of AI with solutions that fundamentally improve how Government serves the American people while protecting taxpayer investments.”

Fun fact: Curtis is an avid boater and angler who spends every possible moment on the water. He and his wife of 22 years have known each other since preschool and now share their love of maritime adventures from their southwest Florida home, exploring destinations from the Bahamas to the Florida Keys.