ORGANIZATION

Our Mission

The CDAO is responsible for accelerating DoW adoption of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) from the boardroom to the battlefield to enable decision advantage. This mission has two parts:

Advancing deterrence

by ensuring our warfighters have the best digital capabilities.

Beating bureaucracy

by ensuring our critical business functions have the digital solutions to deliver for warfighters and taxpayers.

Our Approach

The CDAO approaches this broad mission by aligning its efforts into three categories:

SPEED:

The CDAO is shattering bureaucratic inertia by rapidly harnessing advanced private sector AI. We are aggressively adapting these tools for the defense environment, taking calculated risks to deliver iterative, game-changing technology that makes our forces better and faster, today.

FOCUS:

The CDAO is bringing relentless, streamlined focus to AI development. We are channeling resources into decisive 'Pace Setting Programs' for maximum impact across warfighting, intelligence, and the enterprise. Our execution delivers superior performance, getting autonomy to the warfighter to dominate the future battlespace.

TRUST:

The CDAO knows that technology is useless without trust. We are forging that trust in our systems by ensuring they are secure and responsible; in our people, by empowering them as the ultimate decision-makers; and with our partners, through open architecture. This creates a unified decision advantage built on the full confidence of our warfighters and allies.

Strategic Vision

AI Objectives

Goal 1

Enhancing Lethality

"We are fielding AI-powered capabilities that increase the speed and accuracy of operational decisions, improving the lethality and effectiveness of every warfighter."

Goal 2

Improving Support to the Force

"We are deploying AI to revolutionize our support functions—from logistics and sustainment to intelligence analysis—making our operations more efficient and resilient."

Goal 3

Adapting to a Changing World

"We are leveraging AI to anticipate and respond to evolving threats. This ensures the DoW remains agile and prepared for the complex challenges of a new era of warfare."

Goal 4

Attracting and Cultivating Talent

"We are committed to building the world's best AI workforce, recruiting top-tier minds and empowering our people with the skills to lead in the age of artificial intelligence."

Our History

Digital transformation through integrated leadership and investment strategies

2026
SCALED
2024 - 2025
ALIGNED
2022 - 2023
CONSOLIDATED
2021
COLLABORATIVE

2026

GenAI.mil reached 1 million unique active users with nearly 40 million prompts entered.

Launched Swarm Forge with US Special Operations Command, taking new drone capabilities from development to fielded use with trained operators in just 90 days.

Launched Agent Network with USINDOPACOM, delivering tangible results with phased approach that begins with establishing an agent framework and deploying initial targeting agents within the first year.

2024 - 2025

New acquisition approach to advance a marketplace of data-driven tech stacks (Open DAGIR), aligns Advana and key AC2A capabilities to an improved open data standards architecture

President’s AI Action plan released with three overarching pillars: Accelerate AI Innovation, Build American Infrastructure, and Lead in International AI Diplomacy and Security

CDAO realigned under the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)) to accelerate department-wide AI transformation

CDAO launched www.GenAI.mil, a resource for all DoW military, civilian, and contract employees to utilize generative Artificial Intelligence tools that are certified safe for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), or Information Level 5 (IL5).

2022 - 2023

Organizations are consolidated as a Principal Staff Assistant (PSA)

Supporting Tier of Governance forum, CDAO Council, established

Data, Analytics and AI Adoption Strategy released, with the AI Hierarchy of Needs prioritizing precursors necessary for sustainable AI at scale

CDAO assumes leadership of USNORTHCOM's Global Information Dominance Experiment series

CDAO assumes leadership for SUNet and begins rationalizing enterprise platforms and services

2021

Four separate organizations within OSD — the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), Defense Digital Service (DDS), the Chief Data Officer (CDO), and the Advana program from within Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) — collaborate on digital transformation

CDO and JAIC partner to kick-off the AI and Data Accelerator initiative for Combatant Commands

Advana partners with CDO in advancing executive analytics and federated data cataloging

DDS performs independent analysis providing recommendations for Advana and CDO