Pentagon AI Pilot Cuts Army Hiring to 47 Days

The Army’s average civilian hiring time fell from 161 days to 47 under a Pentagon pilot using artificial intelligence and consolidated recruiting steps, Michael Cogar, who oversees the Defense Department’s civilian personnel policies, said. The department is rebuilding a workforce it gutted last year, and a senior Pentagon official said the new process had accelerated civilian hiring.

A Faster Hiring Process

The initiative brought together the Army’s Civilian Human Resources Agency, its Military Entrance Processing Command and the Defense Logistics Agency. The department used automation throughout hiring. Tasks completed before a job posting took six days instead of 40, while the selection phase dropped from 18 days to four, Cogar said.

HR specialists can use AI tools to generate job announcements, review resumes and present a slate of candidates. Previously, specialists could spend eight hours a day sorting through disconnected databases and filling out templates by hand. Cogar described how their role had changed: “The HR professional ceases to be a data-entry clerk,” he said. “They become an elite talent scout, a strategic advisor to the brigade commander and an active manager of the candidate experience.”

The Pentagon hasn't disclosed how many people the pilot hired or how it could expand across the military. Officials didn't provide those details alongside the reported reduction in hiring time.

Pentagon leaders want to extend a firm job offer within 30 days of a job posting. Cogar said the pilot showed that target was possible. He cited lengthy vacancies in technical positions as a national-security concern, saying that when commands take 180 days—or 300 days in an overseas theater—to hire an artificial intelligence specialist, cyber operations engineer or organic industrial-based machinist, “we do not simply just lose a qualified candidate to the private sector. We lose our operational edge.” He made the remarks Oct. 14 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington.

Hiring Authority Shifts Downward

Pentagon policymakers are rewriting and simplifying hiring authorities so service- and agency-level leaders can adapt them to their needs. Cogar said the department had overhauled 11 direct-hire authority policies, which let agencies fill vacancies in critical fields more quickly.

The Defense Department delegated authority to make direct hires for certain essential roles to service secretaries and agency directors. Those officials can pass decisions to their manpower teams, while hiring managers have more leeway on decisions typically handled by HR. “Using direct hiring authority is not an exception, it is the expectation,” Cogar said.

The department also mandated that military spouses be considered for open positions and expanded the ability to telework while overseas. Cogar said policy changes must be matched by changes to processes and technology. “We can write the most forward-leaning policy in the world, but if an operational requirement sits in a queue for 45 days waiting for a position description and another 30 days for a resume routing, policy means nothing.”

Bonuses and Workforce Retention

The department has awarded more than $1 billion in bonuses to more than 90,000 employees it identifies as top performers. Cogar said the awards averaged more than $13,000 apiece and formed part of a new effort to reward and retain the workforce in the past year. Certain civilian leaders and colonels can now offer recruitment, relocation or retention incentives of up to 25% of a person’s base pay without approval from higher headquarters.

Cogar urged Army officials to identify policies and procedures that hinder efforts to build a stronger civilian corps. He said the department had spent decades building “a bureaucratic fortress to protect ourselves from administrative risk,” creating what he called “severe operational risk.” Slow recruitment and difficulty addressing unacceptable performance, he said, burden high-performing employees, frustrate commanders, drain organizational morale and degrade readiness.

“That era is over,” he said.