In a Bloomberg Government exclusive‚ federal market analyst Chris Cornillie profiles the Pentagon’s innovative approach to speeding military access to the latest technology – including C3.ai’s AI software solutions.

According to Bloomberg Gov‚ the U.S. Department of Defense has signaled “a shift in how the national security apparatus is adapting to the rapid pace of technological change” by increasing its investment by 30 percent in the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental. DIUx is the “Pentagon’s outpost in Silicon Valley aimed at building ties with the commercial tech sector.”

DIUX has already managed to attract some of the country’s most forward-thinking entrepreneurs and technologists‚ Bloomberg continued. It took DIUx only about 90 days to finalize its agreement with C3.ai‚ and another six months to deploy production software for two aircraft platforms‚ C3.ai President Ed Abbo said in an interview.

“We think we can improve aircraft availability by at least 25 percent. When you think about the fact that the Pentagon spends 30-40 percent of its budget on operations and maintenance‚ even a 1 percent gain in efficiency could save billions‚” Abbo said.

If all goes according to plan‚ Abbo sees significant opportunities to scale C3.ai’s AI platform throughout the Air Force and the larger defense enterprise.

Read the full Bloomberg Gov article here: Trump Embraces Obama’s “Venture Capital Firm” for Pentagon Tech