AI for Defense Acquisition? Still Waiting at the Station

The Department of Defense didn’t miss the AI train. It bought tickets, built the station, and plastered posters everywhere. But the riders—the program managers, contracting officers, and buyers—are mostly still standing on the platform.

Yes, there are tools. Portals. Dashboards. “Centers of excellence.” and seemingly no shortage of solutions. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: until AI shows up in someone’s actual daily workflow—on the screens they already use—it’s just another “good” idea.

AI has been part of America’s vocabulary for what feels like forever, but it only went mainstream in the last three years. When it comes to AI for defense acquisition, most hands-on use is still limited to early adopters and self-described nerds like me.

The problem isn’t a lack of tech. It’s friction.

Frontline users are busy. Crushingly so. They don’t have time to experiment. They want solutions that work right now—simple to use, no training needed, no tech headaches, or cultural penalties for coloring outside the lines.

The acquisition machine rewards caution, not curiosity. It prioritizes compliance over creativity. And so, even as AI for defense acquisition offers a path to faster writing, faster research, faster decision support—we still default to emails, PDFs, and manual review chains.

It’s not that the workforce is resisting AI. They want it and need it but they don’t need it on the side or sprinkled on top as just another marketing tagline.

They don’t just need another tool.

They need shortcuts that feels like magic—and that show up when and where they actually matter.

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about the author: Jack Brown