Leveraging AI for Defense Industrial Base Acquisition Reform with Jon Baba

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Jon Baba, a Guidehouse partner with 30 years of experience in defense transformation, argues that AI can do more than speed up paperwork: it can help Defense leaders see where the industrial base is fragile, decide where to invest, and get critical capabilities into the field faster. In conversation with host Mike Derrios, he explains how empowered portfolio acquisition executives could use better data to make tough trade-offs—and how AI might lower the contracting barriers that often keep small and nontraditional suppliers out. They also tackle the hard part: building trust, maintaining human judgment, and improving sustainment alongside acquisition. Baba’s proposed North Star: field…