Artificial intelligence could help upgrade the aging systems that much of the Pentagon still relies on. Justin Fulcher, a technology founder who spent six months as a senior advisor at the Defense Department, says that promise holds only under one condition.

The new tools have to integrate cleanly into existing workflows. If a technology demands that an institution redesign itself before it can be used, Fulcher argues, adoption suffers. The Pentagon runs on infrastructure that predates many of the problems it is now asked to solve.

Reducing Friction First

Fulcher’s view grew out of earlier work. His telehealth startup, RingMD, operated in markets where infrastructure was the binding constraint on what technology could deliver. He learned there that the technology that earns adoption is the one that reduces friction. Justin Fulcher applied the same principle in Washington, where his focus was acquisition reform and IT modernization across defense agencies.

One initiative he contributed to sought to shrink software procurement timelines from years to months. He has described that effort as an organizational problem far more than a technical one. Teams with different legal constraints and institutional histories had to agree on a path forward.

Respecting What Came Before

Fulcher cautions against reading outdated processes as evidence of incompetence. Each one, he says, came from a decision that made sense at the time and was never fully reexamined. Modernization therefore requires judgment about which constraints still serve the mission.

“The work is figuring out which of those constraints are worth preserving and which ones are just costing the Department time,” Justin Fulcher has said.

His reasoning offers a useful frame for anyone building technology for government buyers. Tools that slot into how people already work give an institution a reason to say yes. Tools that require wholesale change give it reasons to wait. Justin Fulcher has carried these lessons into his current work in defense technology and national security. Visit this page for more information.

Find more information about Justin Fulcher on https://about.me/justinfulcher