The U.S. Department of Defense says its AI use is surging and boosting its efficiency, but less than half of agency employees are deploying the technology. And the jury is out on whether the work product is actually any good.
It’s a loaded topic, not least because the short-lived stint of Elon Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) started with grand claims of AI efficiencies that led to mass layoffs and not much evidence of anything else. A closer look into Michael’s claims suggest that the adoption is surging, yet struggling in ways that mirror wider adoption problems inside the Fortune 500.
The Pentagon’s victory against bureaucracy
“I have to report to Congress every year on this thing,” Michael said at the event. “Let me load all the papers onto it and have it draft me a congressional report that would otherwise take 200 hours of staffing time and do it in five hours.”
“Sure enough, they came back to me about a week later and said…‘Not only did we generate the report, [but] this is the best report we’ve written in the past five years.’” Glassman said. “So I’m like, this is incredible, right?”
The agency did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Though data to track AI adoption in the federal workforce has been inconsistent, Brookings explained that “workforce capacity constraints, a risk-averse culture, procurement and funding challenges, and low public trust in AI systems” have slowed adoption efforts. With few resources to train or familiarize staff with AI, agencies are often left with a workforce frustrated or unequipped to experiment and use it.
The watchdog called on OMB to identify privacy-related risks associated with increased AI use and provide guidance on considerations agencies should make when deploying these tools.
“Without providing this additional information,” the report warned, “agencies are at risk of potentially exposing sensitive information that can negatively impact the public.”
