Press Release: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s Artificial Intelligence Services and Governance (DODIG 2025 039)

Inspector General Robert P. Storch announced today that the DoD Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) released the report "Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office's Artificial Intelligence Services and Governance." This report is part of a series of oversight work the DoD OIG is conducting focused on the DoD's use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The evaluation found that the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) was overdue in developing an implementation plan for the DoD's AI Adoption Strategy and AI policy. As a result of the delays in issuing these key foundational documents, the CDAO's roles and responsibilities for DoD data, analytics, and AI were not clearly defined to DoD stakeholders. Furthermore, the lack of policy caused confusion between the CDAO and the DoD Chief Information Office.

As a result, the DoD may not effectively implement or achieve AI's full benefits. "Effective governance of artificial intelligence is critical to the DoD's ability to properly utilize this critical capability. This report represents an important first step by the OIG in assessing the DoD's efforts on AI, including the office that guides the DoD's AI efforts," said IG Storch. "We anticipate continuing to do oversight work in this important area."

The DoD OIG recommended that the CDAO complete and publish an implementation plan outlining how the CDAO and DoD Components will work together to create strategic performance measures to facilitate accomplishing the DoD's AI strategic outcomes and goals. Additionally, the DoD OIG recommended that the CDAO coordinate with the Director of Administration and Management to review existing guidance determine which should be removed or incorporated into the DoD AI policy, and then approve the AI policy guidance.

In response to the evaluation, the DoD provided the recently approved implementation plan and indicated that it is working to revise its controlling guidance. The DoD OIG will continue to monitor the DoD's progress toward full implementation of these recommendations.