Say goodbye to military HR paperwork. The Army’s betting on AI to handle the heavy lifting.
The service is seeking bids for AI-driven HR systems to replace outdated soldier paperwork processes. A “disruptive technology pilot” tied to the Army’s Integrated Personnel and Pay System–Army (IPPS-A) is slated for the coming year, officials said during the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting Tuesday.
The pilot, dubbed the HR Intelligent Engagement Platform, aims to “push the envelope” by integrating smart technologies into existing processes, according to Col. Matt Paul, the IPPS-A’s project manager.
“We’re using the Army’s open solicitation and going through a competitive down-select process to do some prototyping, to determine how can we use AI,’’ Paul told the Army Times, noting that they have several disparate HR and non-HR-related systems and want to see how AI can make them more efficient.
Mobile help desk, leave forms
Officials are evaluating an agentic AI tool that could provide a help desk for soldiers in the IPPS-A mobile app to troubleshoot and resolve issues, Paul said. Eventually, AI may be used for form writing, as well as initiating HR transactions from a prompt.
As he explained, if a soldier needs a leave form, they would be asked a few questions. After the soldier responds, they can obtain an approved leave form.
A contract for the pilot program is expected to be awarded by the IPPS-A team this year, although Paul said there is no fixed timeframe for deploying it.
The $600 million IPPS-A program went live in January 2023 following several years of rollout delays. Users have expressed complaints about the system, primarily in its early stages. However, officials stated that they are continually applying updates and requesting feedback as new processes are integrated from existing systems.
IPPS-A growing pains
Starting last May, IPPS-A began creating DD-214 discharge papers to allow soldiers to see draft DD-214s on their mobile devices and fix errors before leaving the service. The process was described as “a minimal viable product” when it was released, according to Col. Becky Lust, director of the Army’s functional management division.
Since then, “I’m not sure there’s been a release that we haven’t added some functionality,’’ Lus added.
What’s ahead
In the coming months, IPPS-A officials hope to automate the process of checking soldiers into new units and removing them from previous ones — a time-consuming task that requires multiple stops at physical locations for paperwork processing and approval. Paul and Lust said they hope to launch a new, mobile-based workflow within eight months.
The idea is for soldiers to scan a QR code upon arrival at the location, indicating their presence and initiating in-processing by the military personnel division. The IPPS-A would then display “activity guides,” walking them through all of the spots they need to visit, which would be done virtually.
That would build “readiness for the Army,’’ Lust said.
In other AI-related news: A new report revealed that nearly 8 in 10 employees share sensitive company data through ChatGPT and other AI tools.