The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) reached
Full Operating Capability (FOC) today. The CDAO was originally established in January 2022
and reached Initial Operating Capability (IOC) on February 1, 2022. The Office of the Chief
Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (OCDAO) is a Principal Staff Assistant (PSA) level
organization with direct reporting to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.
The CDAO has responsibility for leading and overseeing DoD’s strategy development
and policy formulation for data, analytics, and AI; breaking down barriers to data and AI
adoption within appropriate DoD institutional processes; and creating enabling digital
infrastructure and services that support Components’ development and deployment of data,
analytics, AI, and digital-enabled solutions. Moreover, CDAO will selectively scale proven
digital and Al-enabled solutions for enterprise and joint use cases as well as surge digital services
for rapid response to crises and emergent challenges.
“I am so proud of what the CDAO team has accomplished in less than 6 months since
IOC. In CDAO, we have brought together data strategy and policy, with hands on
implementation, and the barrier removal power of a PSA to apply lessons DoD has learned over
the last several years, and build upon them with greater scale and momentum,” said Deputy
CDAO Margaret Palmieri.