America’s AI Action Plan arrives at exactly the right moment. Agencies across the federal landscape are moving quickly to apply AI to their missions, but they need clarity, flexibility, and momentum to do it well. By shifting focus from regulation to innovation, the administration is not just signaling support, it’s enabling progress.

At GDIT, we see firsthand how important that shift is. We’re helping agencies build and deploy mission-ready AI solutions, remove roadblocks to adoption, and scale responsibly. This plan affirms the urgency of that work and gives both agencies and industry the policy backing to accelerate with confidence.

The teams I lead at GDIT work on behalf of America’s interests every day to accelerate the development and improvement of AI tools and models; to remove barriers to the use of AI for efficiency and effectiveness; to protect the privacy and security of data; to demonstrate a commitment to transparency and trust within AI; and to expand the number of individuals and professionals with knowledge of AI’s capabilities and its limitations for faster, better tasking and decisioning.

In a competitive global AI market wherein many nations are jockeying for AI supremacy – with some openly hostile to American interests – the White House’s plan underscores the impacts AI will have across three important areas: economic security, national security, and national defense.

AI’s Impacts on Economic Security

AI is going to upend, dominate, and create entirely new markets. America’s economic security is directly related to our ability to unleash creativity and innovation in this space. The White House’s emphasis on removing AI regulations around what it sees as excessive testing, evaluation, and attestation is a pro-growth stance that it hopes will act as a jolt to business, expanding opportunities for new AI discoveries or an extension of its capabilities.

An economy transformed by AI will also demand a workforce transformed by AI – but not necessarily in the way most think. Yes, we will need more developers, modelers, and data scientists. But think of them as sitting at the top of an AI workforce pyramid. The second layer consists of those who will take advantage of certain low-code and no-code tools to build their own, bespoke AI solutions to do their jobs more effectively or efficiently. The third and largest layer of the pyramid includes every individual who uses freely available tools like ChatGPT during their workday.

Taken together, this market of AI users will serve as the hotbed of AI innovation and demand, fueling a new wave of economic activity and security. Across all three layers, we will need career pathways and training, but the result will be more productivity, more efficiency, and GDP gains.

AI for National Security and Critical Infrastructure

National security considerations for AI start with our critical infrastructure, which includes everything from roads and bridges to the electrical grid, oil and gas pipelines, food distribution networks, water treatment plants, and data centers.

Using AI to secure this infrastructure from cybercriminals, nation-state actors, and weather or man-made disasters holds tremendous potential. Today’s AI capabilities, like automated vulnerability scanning, pattern detection, and agentic reasoning to surface risks, can strengthen our infrastructure and national security. And these are just the baseline capabilities. The innovations ahead will push this potential even further.

AI for Warfighting and National Defense

When it comes to national defense, our investments in military technology are the envy of the world. The same should be true for AI to assist the warfighter. Already, AI is showing incredible potential to secure military communications networks, thwart unmanned vehicle attacks, and enhance intelligence information repositories. Its ability to analyze massive, complex datasets to uncover patterns, forecast outcomes, and inform strategic decisions with real-time insights will continue to enhance the nation’s warfighting capabilities and keep Americans and American troops safer.

In a global technology competition, AI will have profound effects on economic security, national security, and national defense, while also driving cost savings and efficiencies. GDIT looks forward to continuing to work with our agency customers to innovate and protect our economy, our national security, and our national defense.