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Artificial intelligence has worked its way into nearly every corner of the business world, where organizations use it to answer customer questions, write software, analyze data, forecast demand, make faster decisions and handle myriad other tasks. Adoption is high right now, with Stanford University reporting that 88% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, up from 78% a year earlier.

Still, AI is in its infancy, at least from the broad-use perspective, even though the technology has been around for decades. The field traces its roots to a 1956 workshop at Dartmouth College, where researchers coined the term “artificial intelligence.” Fast-forward to 2026 and many AI users are still testing tools, setting internal rules and weighing faster decisions against the risks of bad data, weak oversight and answers that sound convincing but may be inaccurate.

Uncle Sam is no different, it seems. In a new Securing America’s Defense Supply Chains and Ensuring Domestic Acquisition of Critical Materials executive order, the federal government laid out new requirements focused on getting a better view of the materials, components and suppliers behind military equipment. A new set of instructions for using AI across defense supply chains was tucked into those requirements.

Using AI to Map the Supply Chain

Specific to AI, this new executive order gives the technology a specific goal: helping the Department of War identify national security vulnerabilities across critical supply chains. Using acquisition information supplied by contractors, for example, the department says it wants to map the “vulnerabilities, bottlenecks and single points of failure” connected to key raw materials and other links in the chain. This process (aka “supply chain mapping”) involves tracing where every material, part and supplier comes from, all the way back through the chain.

The order says the department has to consider any and all supply chain risks before granting future exceptions to domestic and allied sourcing rules. These AI-related efforts are part of a broader push to trace defense supply chains from raw materials through the final product.

Some of the new rules include:

• Contractors have to submit a complete, indentured bill of materials that traces components, parts, equipment, software and materials back to their raw material origins. 
• They also have to establish written procedures for vetting suppliers and subcontractors for financial risk, foreign ownership or control and manufacturing or supply concerns. 
• Contractors must keep covered materials from unreliable foreign suppliers out of critical supply chains, subject to specific exceptions. 
• They have to take steps to reduce identified risks and track those actions through completion. 
• And they must notify the department of significant risks within 15 days of completing the supplier review.

“Per the new guidance, military contractors will have to submit a complete indentured bill of materials that traces all components, parts, equipment and software back to the origin of raw materials in their supply chains,” DefenseScoop reports. “They’ll also need to implement procedures for conducting risk assessments and ‘proactively’ vetting suppliers and subcontractors, among other requirements.”