Air Force releases plan to recruit, retain AI professionals

The U.S. Air Force created a plan to “aggressively” recruit and retain artificial intelligence professionals, aligned with the Department of Defense’s broader strategy to improve the country’s AI advantage, according to a Tuesday release.

The department approved the AI Hiring and Talent Development Plan this month with the goal of maintaining an edge against American adversaries and becoming an “AI-first force,” according to the strategy document.

“This Al strategy is fundamental to leveraging our people as a strategic asset, strengthening readiness and lethality, and modernizing our Air and Space Forces to ensure our nation’s competitive advantage,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said in the document.

One main aspect of the plan centers around the force’s ability to recruit, retain and train personnel, per the release. To attract new AI professionals, the force aims to streamline and expedite its hiring process for AI positions, find financial incentives and utilize a “Mission Matching Strategy” to pair candidates with certain defense projects.

To retain the talent the service already has, the department will leverage those already in the ranks by creating a Department of the Air Force Dual-Track Career Model set to give AI experts the ability to move as technical experts instead of traditional management roles, the release states.

For Air and Space service members that are already employed in an AI-centered role — or wish to be — they must prove their skills are aligned with a certain model, instead of previously just needing to fulfill a simple course completion. The training component vies to create a baseline for AI literacy for all personnel.

“AI is not a niche technology of the future; it is now an indispensable capability that must be integrated across our platforms and mission sets now as foundational to our readiness, to enhancing lethality and reestablishing deterrence, and as a cornerstone of our modernization efforts,” Meink said.

The released strategy highlights the different mission areas and directives the department found to be imperative to becoming a more AI-focused force, such as using AI for maintenance and training and fast-tracking the deployment of AI tools to guardians and airmen.

Along with talent and workforce development, the department’s vision includes other efforts to support AI implementation across the force. The other areas are data, technology and infrastructure; partnership and ecosystem management; change management and process re-engineering; and AI governance and oversight.

The document states the force will release an AI implementation plan that showcases the steps the services will take to implement the mission areas in this strategy, but it did not include a specific release date.