As national security threats increase in speed, scale, and complexity, defense and intelligence agencies are under pressure to modernize how they manage mission workflows, operational data, and rapid decision-making cycles. Leaders are increasingly recognizing agent AI—systems that can learn, reason, and take action autonomously—as a critical capability that brings much-needed agility to national security operations.
Paul Tatum, executive vice president of global public sector at Salesforce, said the pace of global threats is forcing fundamental changes in how organizations approach security. “The threats that are happening in the world and the speed at which they are happening require the best technology from our defense partners,” he said on a recent Scoop News Group podcast, noting that advances in AI are beginning to match the tempo of accomplishing current defense missions.
Why agent AI is important for defense
Tatum emphasized that the potential of agent AI goes far beyond analytics. These systems are designed to take actions directly within the mission workflow and are significantly different from previous generations of AI. The new capabilities “allow us to take actions within our workflows, allowing us to learn, adapt, reason, and navigate,” he said.
This change, and Salesforce's deployment of Missionforce to meet national security demands, is important for defense organizations struggling with persistent backlogs, growing compliance obligations, and ever-increasing amounts of mission data. Although many processes are well documented, they still rely heavily on manual intervention. As a result, valuable human resources end up spending significant amounts of time on repetitive tasks instead of focusing on higher-priority mission objectives.
Agentic AI offers a way to alleviate that pressure. These systems help government agencies reduce operational burden by automating activities such as human resources support, case management, document validation, outreach workflows, and policy compliance checks. “We're freeing up this invaluable personnel to take on more strategic and impactful parts of the mission stack,” Tatum said.
What kind of preparation do you need?
When asked if defense agencies are ready for agent-based AI, Tatum didn't hesitate to say, “I think we're 100% ready.” However, he emphasized that responsiveness is not just about having access to advanced technology.
First, agencies need to free up mission data that has been locked in silos for years so that they can effectively train and power AI systems. Next, you need to identify practical, high-impact use cases that can demonstrate early success and build trust across your leadership team. And third, employees must be ready to collaborate with AI agents as a new class of “digital employees.”
Tatum noted that defense and intelligence agencies are already laying important groundwork through infrastructure modernization, improved data quality efforts, and secure cloud adoption. These efforts have created the environment needed for agent AI to significantly improve mission speed and responsiveness, he said.
“If you're part of the Department of the Army, you're looking for a place or place where you can offload things like day-to-day tasks to technology so you can focus on more strategic and impactful mission objectives,” Tatum said.
Learn how Missionforce works Enabling defense and national security organizations to increase IT operational efficiency, increase productivity, create decision advantages, and protect sensitive data.
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