2023 Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence Adoption Strategy-H

This document outlines the Department of Defense's strategy for adopting data, analytics, and artificial intelligence technologies to accelerate decision-making. It builds upon previous strategies and aims to provide warfighters and leaders with high-quality data and advanced analytics/AI capabilities. The goals are to address key challenges, enhance warfighting capabilities, and strengthen the enterprise foundation to maintain long-term decision advantages over strategic competitors. Faster, more precise decisions will result from continuous development and feedback cycles that leverage commercial tools and an educated workforce skilled in data, analytics and AI.

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2023 Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence Adoption Strategy-H

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jefferyleclerc

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DEPAR TMENT OF DEFENSE

Data, Analytics, and Artificial

Intelligence Adoption Strategy
Accelerating Decision Advantage

Cleared for open publication ▪ June 27, 2023, ▪ Department of Defense ▪ Office of Prepublication and Security Review
STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT
As the 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) makes clear, the United States possesses strengths that our
competitors cannot match, among them our diverse and open society, our culture of ingenuity, our innovation
base, and our globe-spanning network of Allies and partners. The Department leverages these strengths by
distributing authority, empowering leaders in our All-Volunteer Force to innovate at the edge and apply their own
judgment to combine old and new capabilities into superior operational concepts. The latest advancements in
data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies enable leaders to make better decisions faster, from the
boardroom to the battlefield. Therefore, accelerating the adoption of these technologies presents an
unprecedented opportunity to equip leaders at all levels of the Department with the data they need, and
harness the full potential of the decision-making power of our people.

The NDS also describes the need for the United States to sustain and strengthen deterrence against the People’s
Republic of China and other strategic competitors, which have widely communicated their intentions to field AI for
military advantage. Accelerating adoption of data, analytics, and AI technologies will enable enduring decision
advantage, allowing DoD leaders to prioritize investments to strengthen deterrence; link cross-cutting campaign
outcomes that counter our competitors’ coercive measures; and deploy continuous advancements in
technological capabilities to creatively address complex national security challenges in this decisive decade.

The urgency of the strategic environment and the scale at which the Department must operate are formidable.
The Department is well-positioned to excel because it has established a foundation of strategic guidance informed
by lessons learned from hands-on initiatives over the last several years.1 The Department’s first AI Strategy,
published in 2018, and revised Data Strategy, published in 2020, are two of these foundational efforts. The 2018
AI Strategy emphasized the need to build centralized infrastructure for AI development, to bridge AI technology
developments from the Department’s research and engineering communities, and to exercise international
leadership in military ethics and AI safety. The 2020 Data Strategy envisioned the Department as a data-centric
organization that can employ data supporting advanced capabilities for operational advantage and increased
efficiency, and oriented enterprise data management activities toward the VAULTIS goal framework.2

1. This guidance includes the DoD AI Strategy (2018), the DoD

Digital Modernization Strategy (2019), the DoD Data
Strategy (2020), the DoD Enterprise DevSecOps Strategy
Guide (2021), the DoD Software Modernization Strategy
(2022), the Trusted AI and Autonomy Critical Technology
Roadmap (2022), and the DoD Zero Trust Strategy (2022).

2. The 2020 DoD Data Strategy outlined the following seven

goals (VAULTIS): Visible – Consumers can locate the needed
data. Accessible – Consumers can retrieve the data.
Understandable – Consumers can find descriptions of data
to recognize the content, context, and applicability. Linked –
Consumers can exploit complementary data elements
through innate relationships. Trustworthy – Consumers can
be confident in all aspects of data for decision-making.
Interoperable – Consumers and producers have a common
representation and comprehension of data. Secure –
Consumers know that data is protected from unauthorized
use and manipulation.

DOD DATA, ANALYTICS, AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ADOPTION STRATEGY 3

Since these strategies were published, industry has produced more tools, platforms, and services for federated
environments, enabling more effective, decentralized data management, and analytics and AI development.
Adoption of these commercial offerings has allowed organizations within the Department to focus on
necessary internal transformation efforts and deploy government-owned tools, services, and platforms for
military use cases. The Department has matured collaboration with academia, industry, as well as Allies and
partners, and promoted best practices on data management, responsible AI, and AI readiness.
Experimentation and fielding have resulted in a deeper understanding of the degrees of data quality and
availability required to develop and deploy advanced analytics and AI capabilities at scale.

This DoD Data, Analytics, and AI Adoption Strategy builds upon and supersedes the 2018 AI Strategy and the
2020 Data Strategy to continue the Department’s digital transformation. The Department will continuously
seize opportunities presented by iterative technology advancements, at the speed of relevance and at the
scale of our global mission. To do so, the Department requires a unified approach across data, analytics, and AI
activities; an educated, empowered workforce skilled at incorporating commercial teams and tools; continued
advanced research and rapid experimentation; and effective integration with our Allies and partners. The
Department cannot succeed alone. Our integration of data, analytics, and AI technologies is nested within
broader U.S. government policy, the network of private sector and academic partners that promote
innovation, and a global ecosystem. We need a systematic, agile approach to data, analytics, and AI adoption
that is repeatable by all DoD Components. This strategy outlines our approach to improving the organizational
environment within which our people can deploy data, analytics, and AI capabilities for enduring decision
advantage.

DOD DATA, ANALYTICS, AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ADOPTION STRATEGY 4

KEY OUTCOMES
As a result of implementing this strategy, DoD leaders and warfighters will be able to make rapid,
well-informed decisions by expertly leveraging high-quality data, advanced analytics, and AI as part
of a continuous, outcome-driven, and user-focused development, deployment, and feedback cycle.

The Department’s investments in data, analytics, and AI will address key operational problems identified in the
2022 NDS, fill validated gaps to enhance the warfighting capabilities of the Joint Force, and strengthen the
enterprise foundation required to sustain enduring advantages. Fielding data, analytics, and AI capabilities across
this continuum from the boardroom to the battlefield recognizes that warfighting decision advantage is enabled
by hundreds, or thousands, of decisions made by personnel and program offices at great distances from the
frontline. Strengthening decision advantage for the Department’s warfighting and business operations is key to
maintaining a resilient future force that can address a broader array of operational problems, dynamically
campaign and deter, and prevail in conflict, if necessary.

Decision advantage is a competitive condition characterized by the following outcomes:

• Battlespace awareness and understanding

• Adaptive force planning and application
• Fast, precise, and resilient kill chains
• Resilient sustainment support
• Efficient enterprise business operations

Agile, user-focused, product-centric development is essential to achieving these outcomes because humans and
machines will work together in the responsible, effective employment of data, analytics, and AI-enabled
capabilities.

Today, there are multi-disciplinary teams throughout the Department that leverage common technology
development best practices. These practices include:

• Employing Agile development fundamental principles and approaches

• Building intuitive interfaces to accelerate human adoption of new technology
• Developing products with cross-functional teams focused on customer needs
• Offering product portfolios with shared digital foundations
• Experimenting with minimum viable products in operational environments to identify new concepts for use,
improve capability, and manage emergent risks

More is needed now, and at scale. The Department will pursue a multi-disciplinary approach and implement
these best practices to strengthen its technology, human capital, processes, and culture. This approach has
implications analogous to pivoting from a heavy armor force to one with greater maneuverability. The
Department will enhance its competitive edge through a vigorous and continuous capability delivery pipeline that
can respond with agility to changing environments and technologies.