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Automation of ‘administrivia’ is coming to the Army

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9 months ago

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The Army has about 300 ideas of where to apply automation technology to simplify and accelerate low-value or mundane work.

The job to decide which ideas are best falls to the Army’s chief information officer, Leo Garciga.

The initial focus for the Army is automating what Garciga calls “administrivia.”

Leonel Garciga is the Army’s chief information officer.

“The undersecretary [Mike Obadal] put out a memo really focused around where do we have opportunities across the Army? And that wasn’t just like, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this in the Pentagon only.’ It was pushed across the entire Army, all the major commands, the program executive offices and the secretary’s office for everybody to really focus on, where do we think there’s these opportunities to start either process automation or to enable AI to really take some of the cognitive burden off our workforce, focus less on the ‘administrivia’ of day-to-day and open up some time for folks to really focus on some of our hard problems,” Garciga said on Ask the CIO. “We got a lot of great feedback, 300 plus submissions that came back to us in CIO, and we’ve been slowly kind of triaging those over time to look at where do we get the most bang for our buck? It’s been an interesting experience to watch across the Army.”

Of the initial list of ideas, the Army focused on some of the low-hanging fruit first. One idea was to apply artificial intelligence and automation to personnel records. Another was to improve cross training for service members and civilian employees.

Garciga said Army employees were spending too much time reviewing PDF documents located in folders to answer personnel questions.

“Let’s put AI against it to really reduce that cognitive burden. I think the big thing being that response time to that customer, whether that be an active duty soldier, a veteran or a civilian, and just reducing that time so we can actually get the right action done,” he said. “Cross training is always an interesting space, though very back office heavy. It’s how do you get both automation and AI involved in that to reduce that time and make sure that soldiers or civilians are in the right place and where they need to be in their lifecycle from a training perspective. So we’re really excited about the submissions.”

Garciga said with so many ideas and limited resources to undertake them, his team judged the ideas based on a few simple concepts. The first was impact on the soldiers and civilians. The second was the ability to scale it across the Army. And third was both cost and impact of that investment. The team ended up choosing five out of the initial 300 ideas to start working on.

“We did find out that some of the little stuff was interesting because it was like these folks should be doing this anyways. But I don’t know if at an enterprise level, we want to tackle this. Some of it was like, ‘Hey, maybe you need to relook at that business process too,’” he said. “What we did find, though, is some of the submissions came up and we said, ‘Oh, hey, by the way, that policy changed. You don’t even have to do that anymore.’ So we found some efficiencies inadvertently as we worked through the process. I think we had a good triage mechanism, which was really focused on soldiers and on where we can make the most impact as quickly as possible to reduce the ‘administrivia’ type work or just cognitive burden on soldiers.”

Business systems reengineering initial focus

Garciga said in the coming months, the Army will move on to the next set of AI and automation projects.

These initial projects are helping the Army better understand what it takes to modernize these long-standing processes.

Garciga said sometimes it’s a data challenge and other times the focus is less on the technology and on the process itself.

“We’ve been really focused on looking at those areas where we really believe that we can have the most impact directly to soldiers or civilian workforce, and then backing that into a couple of things, like does the business process still make sense? That’s always a great question to ask because by nature of our size, 1.3 million plus humans, lots of different mission areas, sometimes we get lost in the process, and just things don’t catch up,” he said. “The next piece is, do we have the data right? A lot of times we find that there’s a lot of problems we want to apply AI to, and it’s like, ‘Hey, this is really a data problem.’ Or, it’s a ‘Hey, we could just automate and workflow this process,’ and all of a sudden we don’t even need the rest of this stuff. It kind of it becomes self-curing. Most of the time, if people know what they want to do, they’ve got a good problem to solve and the process makes sense, right, then we can usually apply technology against it. I think the new piece is somewhere in between the process and the technology is data.”

At the same time, the Army is tackling its business process challenge with a specific focus, at least initially, on business systems.

In July, Garciga issued a memo outlining the new definition of a business system and implementation guidance to further consolidate and optimize those systems.

“The guidance defines a [defense business system], facilitating appropriate binning, legal compliance, budget management, and connection with Department of Defense (DoD)-wide strategic goals — ultimately enhancing mission readiness and operational efficiency,” the memo stated. “A DBS is a comprehensive software solution that integrates both front-end and back-end technologies to support Army business operations. It would be designed to handle data processing, security, interoperability, and compliance.”

Slimming down requirements

The memo was the first step in a bigger effort to initiate business process reengineering across business systems.

Garciga said this effort actually started about two years ago with a team of experts from across the Army analyzing the current status of business systems.

“We’re trying to converge almost 100 business systems in less than a year, and they have been kind of very critical in jumping in and working with those functional stakeholders,” he said. “The folks delivering the capability to really triage that people, process, data and technology piece to make some big decisions on behalf of the Army.”

The next step is a new memo that will further change the Army regulations for how office manage these business systems.

Garciga said the new approach will slim down and make the requirements a little bit easier while also giving the service a more clear understanding of the systems, their role and the people, technology and processes associated with them.

“We really pushed hard to start building out this no code, low code Center of Excellence that is really focused around a little bit more of a centralized approach, so we can take out the cybersecurity and the bespoke system challenges that we’ve had across the Army. I think this next step was to actually define by law what a business system is, so we could separate things into things that are real, business systems and things that are just it that supports business systems. We recently put out some guidance on redefining that, which is going to redefine our landscape in a big way.”

Garciga added this new approach will make it easier to converge, modernize and improve how the systems deliver data and capabilities to the service.

“The conversation we’re having across the Army right now, is, how do we make some of these trades over the next two years? How do we accelerate big programs like enterprise business systems, convergence? How do we give commanders some capabilities that we would traditionally call the agility layer or just visualization and quick analytics? We can use some of our already approved platforms to shrink that time to delivery to soldiers and to the civilian and contract workforce, but at the same time  buy back some of that technical debt that we’ve had with these legacy systems, so we’re really excited about it,” he said. “The most important part of that is part of our big push is you don’t get to come in and say, ‘I’m keeping my system because this is how we do it.’ It’s more of a ‘We’ve looked at our process and this is why we do it, or this is what we’ve done to change it, and this is what’s given us some of those options and opportunities.’”

The post Automation of ‘administrivia’ is coming to the Army first appeared on Federal News Network.

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PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands

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2 months ago

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April 25, 2026

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A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.Failing allies, leftist-Globalists Sanchez (Spain) and Starmer (UK) are about to taste retribution from Trump – Wiki Commons

Failing allies under pressure.

As we have been reporting here on TGP, US President Donald J. Trump is hardly the man to forgive and forget a slight or a betrayal.

And it’s been reported that Trump and his team have compiled a ‘naughty list’ of failing allies, and that some for of payback was expected against these countries.

And today, it arises that the Pentagon is exploring ways to punish NATO countries that failed to support the US during the Iran conflict – including drastic measures like suspending Spain from the alliance.

This was first reported by Reuters, but was picked up by a multitude of outlets, primarily in the UK, where there is widespread concern over the planned US ‘review’ of the British claim to the Falkland Islands.

Daily Mail reported:

“The policy options are detailed in an email expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant Washington access, basing and overflight (ABO) rights for the Iran war. The email stated that ABO is ‘just the absolute baseline for NATO,’ according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.

The memo also includes an option to consider reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European ‘imperial possessions,’ such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.”

Needless to say, the response by the Euro-Globalists was immediate.

On the one hand, NATO states there is no provision to oust Spain, while the UK reaffirms its sovereignty over the South American Islands.

Read more:

NATO and the Bar Fight: A Bar Tab Europe Expects America To Pay Forever

The post PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America

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2 months ago

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April 25, 2026

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Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Japan and Germany are dying from the same disease: socialism.

Back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, the so-called “experts,” the mainstream media, and every smug Ivy League economist couldn’t stop drooling over Japan. “Japan as Number One!” they screamed. Books flew off the shelves. Newsweek and Time covers warned of an “economic Pearl Harbor.”

Paul Harvey wailed about Japan buying up America with our own money. Paul Kennedy’s bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers basically coronated the Land of the Rising Sun as the next global hegemon.

The keiretsu system, the MITI bureaucrats, the lifetime employment model — it was all supposed to be the future. America was finished. The Japanese were going to own us.

Fast-forward to 2025-2026. Japan is a cautionary tale on life support. GDP per capita (PPP) hovers around a pathetic $55,000–$56,000 — crushed by America’s nearly $94,000. After taxes and cost of living? It’s even worse. The “Lost Decades” aren’t a glitch — they’re the feature. Zombie companies, endless stagnation, and a demographic death spiral made infinitely worse by policies that treat businesses like government welfare offices rather than wealth-creation machines.

The mainstream press will blame everything except the real culprit: the deliberate socialization of the corporation.

Keiretsu

In Japan, it’s the infamous keiretsu system — giant corporate clans glued together by cross-shareholdings and a house bank that plays mommy to every failing division. Lifetime employment. Seniority-based pay and promotions instead of merit. Company unions that treat every layoff like a war crime. The goal isn’t profit — heaven forbid — it’s “harmony” and keeping everyone employed forever. Result? Total paralysis. You can’t fire the dead weight. You can’t reallocate capital to what actually works. You can’t innovate like a maniac because revolution is “disruptive.”

When the 1990s bubble popped, they didn’t clean house — they dragged toxic debt around like a ball and chain for decades.

And don’t look now, but Germany — once the envy of Europe — is right there with them in the loser’s club. Years of zero or outright negative growth. Factories shuttering. The proud German export machine is coughing up blood. The vaunted “Rhine model” has turned into a slow-motion industrial suicide.

Mitbestimmung

Because Germany took the socialization even further with the notorious Mitbestimmung — “co-determination.” In big companies, workers and union reps literally occupy half the seats on the supervisory board. They get veto power over layoffs, plant closings, relocations, and major restructurings. It’s not capitalism anymore — it’s corporate communism with better engineering. The boardroom isn’t deciding how to crush competitors and reward shareholders; it’s negotiating how to protect today’s insiders at the expense of tomorrow’s growth.

Add in the deranged Energiewende — the green energy fantasy that tripled electricity costs — and you have the perfect storm. German industry is literally powering down while the rest of the world races ahead.

BMW/Tesla

Want proof? Look at BMW versus Tesla. BMW sells about 2.5 million vehicles a year. Tesla sells around 1.5 million. BMW’s market cap? A measly ~$55 billion. Tesla’s? Over twenty times higher. One company is run by visionaries who embrace the future and reward risk-takers. The other is run like a German labor ministry with a side hustle in cars.

This is what happens when you let “stakeholders” — code for unions, bureaucrats, and professional grievance-mongers — hijack the boardroom. The enterprise stops being a profit machine that lifts everyone through growth and becomes a social-work project designed to protect yesterday’s workers at the expense of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, young people, and innovators.

It’s the exact same philosophy the American left has been trying to smuggle into U.S. boardrooms for years: ESG scores, “stakeholder capitalism,” DEI mandates, union power grabs, and the constant war on shareholders. They call it compassionate. It’s actually economic castration. Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” — the engine of real progress — gets sacrificed on the altar of Karl Marx’s class warfare dressed up in a suit and tie.

America’s model is raw, unapologetic, and brutally effective: The company exists to make money for its owners. Management executes or gets fired. You restructure, you pivot, you kill failing divisions without crying about “humanity.” It looks ugly to the European and Japanese salon socialists. It also creates the iPhones, the SpaceX rockets, the shale revolution, and the stock market that funds retirements for millions.

The Axis of Losers

Japan and Germany didn’t fail because of demographics or one bad energy policy. They failed because they turned their greatest companies into paralyzed extensions of the welfare state. The “Axis of Losers” chose preservation over progress — and they’re paying for it in lost decades and lost futures.

America still has a choice. We can reject this European-Japanese corporate socialism, tell the unions and the stakeholder grifters to pound sand, and keep rewarding the risk-takers and wealth-creators who actually build the future.

Or we can follow the Axis of Losers straight into the economic graveyard. The choice should be obvious — but the radical left never learns. They just rebrand failure as “equity” and keep selling the same poison. Don’t let them.

The post AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number

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2 months ago

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April 25, 2026

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Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

A horrifying video from New York has sparked nationwide outrage after a 14-year-old boy was caught on camera brutally body-slamming a 15-year-old girl to the concrete and then stomping on her head, all because she refused to give him her phone number.

Now, the boy’s mother is publicly defending her son, claiming the victim was “bullying” him and that his savage and animalistic attack was somehow justified because he is a “humble” Christian.

The shocking attack occurred around 3:30 p.m. on Monday at the corner of East 107th Street and Third Avenue in East Harlem, just after school let out.

The 15-year-old girl, a ninth-grade student-athlete at East Harlem Scholars Academy Charter School heading to squash practice, was confronted by the 14-year-old masked suspect, who had reportedly been harassing her for weeks.

In the disturbing footage, the girl is seen trying to walk away and yelling, “Get the f–k away from me.”

The boy follows her, grabs her from behind, lifts her off the ground, slams her to the pavement, and then stomps directly on her head.

His friends can be heard laughing and egging him on as the girl lies motionless on the ground.

WATCH (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED):

The girl suffered a concussion and was rushed to Harlem Hospital.

The 14-year-old suspect was arrested on Wednesday and appeared in Manhattan Family Court, where he was ordered held in custody by the Division of Youth and Family Justice.

Because both parties are minors, his name has not been publicly released.

In an interview captured outside the courthouse, the boy’s mother, Selma Allen, issued a wild defense of her violent son.

WATCH:

Allen claimed the 15-year-old girl had been bullying him in school, sending messages, and even pushing him down, and that this somehow justified the vicious attack.

“She was being a bully to him, that’s it,” Allen told reporters.

“He’s been complaining about her. I bring it to the principal’s attention but he don’t address it. The way my son is being bullied, he doesn’t want to go to school.”

She claimed her son is a “quiet” boy who “doesn’t provoke nobody,” and described him as a “humble Christian.”

“He don’t provoke nobody. But if you provoke him, he will lash out.”

Allen insisted her son had proof on WhatsApp and Instagram and repeatedly shifted blame onto the victim while downplaying the savage stomp on the girl’s head.

None of the reporters asked the obvious question: if the girl was truly bullying him, why was he aggressively demanding her phone number and following her?

The victim’s mother, Lucinda Arroyo, spoke out Thursday in an interview with the New York Post. She said her daughter had been dealing with weeks of harassment from the boy and said it was a “miracle” her daughter survived.

“She’s very upset that her whole life has been completely flipped upside down right now,” Arroyo said. “She’s known him as someone who’s bad news for a while.”

“This is not even bullying, this is outright assault — and he could have killed her,” she asserted.

Her daughter was left with a concussion, bleeding, a potential brain injury, crushing headaches and a twisted neck, and will require ongoing physical therapy.

The post WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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