Marine Corps initiates deployment of new ‘digital transformation teams’

Cpl. Connor Brannagan, fire direction chief assigned to Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, uses an M32A1 Lightweight Handheld Mortar Ballistic Computer while conducting mortar drills at Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, Bridgeport, Calif., July 27, 2022. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jonathan L. Gonzalez)

By Brandi Vincent • Apr 29, 2025

The Marine Corps recently launched a pilot program that’s deploying “digital transformation teams” around the service to help personnel digitize processes, expand trustworthy data pipelines, identify vulnerabilities, and ultimately align and expedite AI-enabling applications for real-world operations, according to a top official involved.

During a keynote presentation and sideline conversations with DefenseScoop at the AITalks conference on Thursday, Marine Corps AI lead Capt. Christopher Clark shared new details about the push to enhance the service’s technological infrastructure and spark a meaningful digital transformation over the next three years.

“We are, as a small service with a limited budget, very interested in ensuring that AI implementation is effective and that it is needed, and that we’re not just employing and deploying on top of AI solutions that are just flashy and expensive, right? So to do that, we have the AI implementation plan, which we are expecting to have released here very soon,” Clark said.