DIA Moves to Centralize AI Through a Permanent Digital Modernization Accelerator

The DIA is turning an ad hoc AI push into a permanent structure

The Defense Intelligence Agency is institutionalizing a new, more centralized approach to artificial intelligence after concluding that its earlier efforts were too fragmented to keep pace with operational needs. Speaking at SCSP’s ai+intelligence conference, DIA chief AI officer Maj. Gen. Robert Kinney said the agency’s Digital Modernization Accelerator, created on March 1, is the permanent successor to Task Force Sabre, the temporary unit that spent the last year trying to rationalize scattered AI programs.

The change is significant because it reflects a shift from experimentation at the edges to a more formal operating model. In Kinney’s account, the agency was running multiple AI efforts, but many were bespoke or siloed. The risk, he said, was not inefficiency alone, but strategic irrelevance if the organization failed to coordinate and deliver usable capability quickly.

From scattered pilots to a hub-and-spoke model

The new organization is built around what Kinney described as a hub-and-spoke structure. The Digital Modernization Accelerator, also nicknamed the “Maverick Accelerator,” is intended to concentrate scarce technical expertise and then push support outward across the agency and to combatant commands.

That model is important in intelligence environments because isolated AI pilots can produce local wins without changing enterprise performance. A central accelerator, by contrast, can standardize methods, speed procurement, and move technical talent to the highest-priority operational problems. The reporting indicates that this is precisely the role DIA now wants the DMA to play.

Speed is part of the strategy

Kinney’s public message was blunt: move fast or fall behind. He described urgency as a governing principle for the team and pointed to contracting reform as one example of how the agency is trying to shorten delivery timelines. According to his remarks, Task Force Sabre used Other Transaction Authority agreements, a procurement pathway common elsewhere in the Defense Department but one DIA had not used in years.

The result, by Kinney’s telling, was a visible acceleration. He said the agency completed six OTAs during the past year through Task Force Sabre, and that one effort moved from request for information to contract award in 40 days. In defense acquisition terms, that is a notable pace, especially for an intelligence organization trying to field new digital tools rather than merely study them.

ChatDIA is a marker of where the agency wants to go

One of the clearest outputs from the reform push is ChatDIA, described in the source text as the first classified generative AI chatbot to run on the top-secret Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System network. Kinney said the tool first appeared on a smaller scale last fall and then ramped up in December.

The importance of that development lies less in branding than in placement. A generative AI system operating inside top-secret infrastructure suggests DIA is focused on embedding AI where analysts and operators already work, rather than treating advanced models as detached demonstrations. It also indicates that the agency sees secure deployment, not only model performance, as part of the core challenge.

Support is extending beyond DIA headquarters

The agency is also using small mission integration teams to work directly with combatant commands. According to Kinney, these teams of three or four AI experts help commands adopt technology and rethink workflows so the tools can be used effectively. That detail matters because AI programs often stall when organizations install software without redesigning the processes around it.

The mission teams imply that DIA is trying to avoid that trap. If the accelerator can pair tools with operational integration, it stands a better chance of changing how intelligence support is delivered in practice rather than simply adding new software to an old system.

Why this reorganization matters

The most consequential part of the announcement is not any single tool. It is the admission that decentralized AI activity was insufficient. By converting Task Force Sabre into a permanent Digital Modernization Accelerator, DIA is signaling that AI is no longer a side initiative to be managed through isolated projects. It is becoming part of institutional design.

Whether the effort succeeds will depend on sustained execution, but the direction is clear. The agency wants faster procurement, fewer silos, more reusable capability, and tighter alignment between AI development and operational demand. In a national security environment increasingly shaped by data speed and analytical scale, that is a structural shift worth watching.

• The Digital Modernization Accelerator became the permanent successor to Task Force Sabre on March 1.
• DIA says the new structure is designed to centralize expertise and speed capability delivery.
• The agency also highlighted ChatDIA and rapid OTA contracting as signs of progress.

This article is based on reporting by Breaking Defense. Read the original article.