CDAO, the Pentagon’s AI-accelerating office, undergoing restructuring before presidential transition
In her final months as the Pentagon’s second permanent Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, Dr. Radha Plumb and her team have been reshaping some of the hub’s directorates and acceleration cells to more quickly and strategically scale proven and experimental AI-enabled capabilities across the U.S. military at a pace that more closely matches real-world needs.
“The good news is it’s just a very natural evolution from what was already there,” Plumb told DefenseScoop Monday during an exclusive interview at the Pentagon.
When it first achieved full operational capability in 2022, the CDAO was structured around four combined predecessor organizations: the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), Defense Digital Service (DDS), Office of the Chief Data Officer, and the Advana program. Plumb, who before this role served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, assumed leadership after the office’s first chief, longtime commercial tech executive Craig Martell, departed in early 2024.