- The Pentagon now has to send more than 1,400 reports to Congress annually
- GenAI.mil is recommended as a tool to speed up report writing and other productivity
- Workers weren’t sure how to use AI, “so we got over it”
Senior Pentagon officials have publicly encouraged Defense Department employees to use its internal generative artificial intelligence tool, GenAI.mil, to help them perform routine administrative work more efficiently.
During a recent appearance, Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael referred to the AI-generated reports that Congress has released as a success story, urging Pentagon staff to “use GenAI.mil, do the best you can.”
One example highlighted by Michael was the legally required Congressional report that the Department of Defense must submit. “Let me load all the documents into it and ask you to write me a report for Congress that would otherwise require 200 staff hours and do it in five hours,” he said.
Pentagon admits using AI to generate reports to Congress
Michael ultimately concluded that congressionally mandated reports are repetitive and may require substantial resources, but are read by only a handful of people. He believes AI helps reduce administrative burden, creating more free time for workers to focus on higher-value tasks.
The Defense Department had to submit about 1,400 reports to Congress in 2020, up from just 500 in 2000.
GenAI.mil is a relatively recent scheme, launched in December 2025, and is now estimated to have around 1.5 million daily users among a workforce of around 3.5 million.
Rather than being a ground-up development, GenAI.mil is more of a central hub for third-party military-grade AI tools to come together, described as a “bespoke AI platform.” It was first launched with Google’s Gemini for Government.
At the time, in late 2025, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, “The Department is harnessing America’s commercial genius and we are incorporating generative AI into our daily battle rhythm.”
Being more of a center for combining multiple tools, the War Department reiterated its commitment to “build[ing] an architecture that avoids AI vendor lock-in and ensures long-term flexibility.”
The Pentagon’s AI deployment has been a success story
While many companies around the world struggle to get company-provided AI into the hands of workers or fail to provide relevant tools to fight shadow AI, the Pentagon’s rollout has been a success story.
This is likely because the Department of Defense removed uncertainty about acceptable use and provided clear guidance on when it can be used. “It wasn’t very clear where to get it, what it could be used for, the rules weren’t clear, so we just let it go,” Michael added.
Familiarity with AI, both through training and the platform’s ease of use, has also helped put GenAI.mil into the hands of more than two-fifths of all DoD workers. “So we just present it to them and then do case studies on what people use it for,” he added.
However, thorough human review remains imperative, with humans ultimately responsible for the outcome they share: workers are expected to review content before submitting it.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
