The Department of Defense is seeking ideas on how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can be leveraged to accelerate and expand zero trust cybersecurity assessments across the Department of Defense (DOD), which was renamed the Department of the Army by the Trump administration.
in Request for information (RFI) posted on SAM.gov on Tuesday said the department's Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office (ZT PfMO) is considering how emerging technologies can support “Purple Team Assessments,” a collaborative security assessment approach that brings together attacking and defending cyber teams and system owners.
These assessments are a key element of the Department of Defense's Zero Trust Strategy, which requires components to meet 91 target-level Zero Trust activities and 10 acceptance criteria. All DoD IT environments must achieve target levels of compliance by the end of fiscal year 2027. Compliance is verified through a combination of internal and third-party reviews, including the Purple Team assessment, which examines how simulated adversaries and defensive cyber forces operate and interact within an IT environment.
ZT PfMO explained that scaling Zero Trust assessments across the Department of Defense while maintaining accuracy and efficiency requires a new approach that relies on automation and advanced technology.
“As such, the Department of Defense is interested in understanding how emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, can be leveraged to automate and enhance the Zero Trust assessment process,” the RFI states.
According to the RFI, automation, AI, and machine learning can help address the Department of Defense's limited ability to validate initial zero trust compliance and support ongoing assessments.
In the RFI, the Department posed a series of questions to the industry, including how automation and AI can be used to support Purple Team activities, identify and prioritize potential attack vectors, simulate realistic attack scenarios, and analyze detection and alert effectiveness. Other questions focus on data sources, barriers to adoption, training data requirements, and emerging trends that may shape the future of zero trust assessments.
The Department also called on vendors to address potential roadblocks and friction points associated with deploying AI-powered assessment tools into DoD environments.
Responses to the RFI are expected on February 9, 2026.
