The 2026 AI for Defense Summit, taking place September 2–3, 2026, will bring together senior leaders from across the defense, intelligence, government, and technology communities to examine how artificial intelligence is being developed, governed, and deployed to support mission advantage. We talked with Hanna Price Kenner, Senior Program Manager, Defense Strategies Institute, about the key themes shaping the conversation, including data readiness, trusted AI adoption, human-machine teaming, acquisition modernization, and the secure integration of emerging AI capabilities across defense operations.
Government Technology Insider (GTI): As the Department of War moves from AI experimentation to operational deployment, what are the biggest challenges organizations face in scaling AI capabilities across the enterprise while delivering measurable mission outcomes?
Hanna Price Kenner (HPK): The Department of War recognizes the vast potential AI has for revolutionizing operations. The question isn’t whether it can provide value – it is how to integrate it for best effect. True transformation will require scaling AI solutions across systems and workflows at the enterprise level as well as in operational environments. To do this, the services will need to address data quality, management, governance, and access issues as well as outdated, unsecure legacy systems. Other key challenges include cybersecurity, acquisition timelines and hurdles, and workforce readiness. To ensure there is measurable mission outcomes, organizations need to start asking themselves whether their deployed AI models are enabling faster, better decision-making, improving situational awareness, reducing workloads, or creating tangible operational advantage on the battlefield.
GTI: Data is often described as the foundation of successful AI adoption. How is the AI for Defense Summit exploring the topic of data quality, accessibility, and governance to support trusted AI systems and decision-making at scale?
HPK: Data is foundational to successful AI adoption, and organizations are working to overcome fragmented, siloed data across disparate networks to ensure it is usable and accessible. This year’s Summit will feature a panel entitled “Getting the Foundation Right: Data Management for AI” that will bring together senior data and AI leaders to share how their organizations are prioritizing data management, quality, governance, and accessibility at scale. Because each agency and organization across the Intelligence Community and Department of War has different missions, data environments, and requirements, each one thinks about data differently. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. The session will highlight the strategies and infrastructure needed to make data safe, accessible, and trustworthy so organizations can effectively leverage and scale AI.
GTI: AI is increasingly being integrated into command and control environments, including CJADC2 initiatives. How are military leaders balancing the need for faster, AI-enabled decision-making with requirements for transparency, trust, and human oversight?
HPK: The Department of War is accelerating technological innovation at the speed of mission to support AI-enabled decision advantage. While speed is critical to stay ahead of adversarial advancements, military leaders recognize that AI-enabled decision-making must be built on trust, transparency, and appropriate human oversight. From the warfighter’s perspective, it’s hard to use technology you don’t trust. The key is finding the balance—identifying opportunities and areas where AI can accelerate analysis, improve situational awareness, and support faster decision-making while ensuring leaders retain the appropriate level of oversight, understanding, and ultimately, accountability. The goal, and the challenge, is not to replace human decision-making but to give Commanders and operators better analysis, insights, and decision support to act, move, shoot, and communicate faster, all without unnecessary risk or compromising the integrity or operational effectiveness of the mission.
GTI: Commercial AI innovation continues to outpace traditional government acquisition cycles. What changes are needed to accelerate the adoption of emerging AI capabilities while ensuring security, reliability, and mission relevance?
HP: The DoW recognizes the vital role industry plays in developing innovative AI solutions. The recently released Artificial Intelligence Strategy from earlier this year prioritizes the development of an “AI-first warfighting force” powered by commercial tech integration and rapid deployment across the services at what it describes as “wartime speed”. However, government policies and processes are continually flagged as barriers to moving quickly in acquisition. It is critical that government acquisition policies and processes continue to be modernized in a way that encourages agility and iteration to rapidly test, evaluate, and compare emerging technologies against mission requirements. In doing so, it’s important to maintain standards for security, reliability, and performance to identify and field the best available capabilities at the speed of the Warfighter’s mission.
GTI: As generative AI, agentic AI, and autonomous systems become more capable, what will the AI for Defense Summit highlight about preparing the workforce to effectively collaborate with AI and maximize the benefits of human-machine teaming?
HPK: This year’s Summit will highlight the importance of building AI fluency across the workforce to better understand how to effectively use and collaborate with AI, recognize its limitations, and know when outputs can and cannot be trusted. Generative AI, agentic AI, and autonomous systems are evolving rapidly, so continual training and education are critical to ensuring personnel have the confidence and skills to adapt and grow alongside these technologies. Effective human-machine teaming will require empowering people to embrace AI as a tool that is able to augment human expertise and decision-making but not replace human judgement, oversight, and accountability across missions.
GTI: Adversaries are rapidly advancing their own artificial intelligence capabilities. How is the United States maintaining a competitive advantage in the AI race while ensuring responsible and secure deployment across defense missions?
HPK: The value of AI on the future battlefield will be measured by its ability to provide information and decision advantage at speed and scale. The advantage will go to those who can assess, evaluate, understand, decide, and act faster and more effectively than their adversary. This is where AI can be a critical enabler – it can help process information, identify patterns, detect risks, and make decisions at faster speeds and with greater confidence and clarity. To do this, the US must leverage and continue to invest in our world-leading commercial AI ecosystem and continue to close the gaps between commercial innovation, defense acquisitions, and operational deployments. Leaders must continue to prioritize rapid deployments while balancing the need for security and trust – AI capabilities need to be integrated with appropriate safeguards, testing, human oversight, and security against adversarial threats.
GTI: Looking ahead, what role will emerging technologies such as agentic AI, multimodal models, autonomous decision-support systems, and AI-enabled mission planning play in shaping the future of military operations and national security?
HPK: AI is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and the Department of War must continually explore how to integrate emerging capabilities into how military operations are planned, trained and executed. Generative AI, agentic AI, multimodal models, and autonomous systems have the potential to revolutionize how Warfighters collect, process, and analyze information and how Commanders understand their operating environment and make decisions. These technologies can improve situational awareness, support mission planning, reduce sensor-to-shooter timeliness, and enable Warfighters to operate more effectively as part of human-machine teams. Looking to the future, the opportunity is ripe for AI and autonomous systems to act as force multipliers to enhance command and control across multi-domain operations.