AI to Boost Military Info-Tech Market.

Pentagon spending on artificial intelligence is expected to grow faster than the overall defense information-technology market, according to one analyst.

Eighteen contracts with a total value of $489 million were awarded by the Defense Department in 2019 for AI products and services, noted Brad Curran, industry principal for aerospace, defense and security at Frost & Sullivan.

While military spending on IT is projected to increase about 2 percent in 2021, artificial intelligence is projected to do better within that portfolio over the short-, medium- and long-term, he said during a recent webinar.

The Pentagon established the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center in 2018, and each of the services and many other organizations within the Defense Department are also doing their own work with the technology, he noted.

"The contracts to assist analysts and to assist human understanding, to be able to take large amounts of data and do predictive analytics is very important to DoD for logistics, for maintenance, for intelligence, for communications, to be able to make the best possible use of the crowded frequency spectrum," he said. "Many different areas are using artificial intelligence more and more within DoD."

Contract trends include computer vision engineering to improve network performance, and...