US army's major AI focus: Streamlining paperwork, not robots

The US Army's biggest AI strategy might not focus on autonomous weapons, but rather on whether tech from Silicon Valley can handle the service's most tedious and demanding administrative roles.

Consider less uncrewed aircraft and more behind-the-scenes duties, like recruiting, keeping up with maintenance, or even managing extensive inventory lists. 

Through a blend of modern tools, refreshed processes, and data integration, logisticians and data experts are exploring ways to modernise the operations of the largest branch of the military—an enormously challenging task intended to slash the tedious work processes that have long frustrated soldiers.

"AI is essentially the tip of the iceberg," David Markowitz, the Army's chief data and analytics officer, shared with Business Insider, talking about the massive, billion-dollar transformative initiative.

It's still up in the air whether these trials will bring lasting change. However, some improvements could soon aid those in more labor-intensive roles. "Those who do the work daily know best how to make necessary changes," Markowitz asserted.

Business Insider stopped by the Arlington, Va., office where, every few weeks, groups of soldiers collaborate with civilian engineers to test drive and refine a new CRM system built on the Salesforce platform.

If implemented, it could significantly reduce the workload for Army's recruiters—a role within the Army viewed as extremely demanding and prone to burnout.

Recruiters must input every possible recruit's details manually during every interaction, missing out on the intuitive interface that most folks now enjoy on their smartphones. 

The necessary waivers for things like fitness issues, test outcomes, or legal matters are another complexity the Army expects AI could simplify.

A year back, a review was conducted to evaluate how much "burden" exists when enlisting young individuals, stated Alex Miller, the Army's chief technology officer.

"We discovered there were thousands of unique information points they must supply, with many of them being repetitive," he mentioned about the document requirements. Simple tasks like manually copying names and addresses together eat up several valuable hours.