The CIA is going all-in on artificial intelligence and quantum computing, with Director John Ratcliffe pledging to dramatically accelerate how the agency adopts emerging technologies.
Ratcliffe, who was confirmed as CIA Director on January 23, 2025, with a 74-25 Senate vote, has been beating this drum since before he took the job. During his January 15, 2025 confirmation hearing, he told lawmakers that AI and quantum computing are critical for future national security.
Speed is the strategy
The CIA’s previous acquisition process took roughly 24 months, plus an additional nine months for security assessments. Ratcliffe wants to compress that timeline to six months. He laid out this goal during a keynote at the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit on June 30, 2026, and the early numbers suggest the agency isn’t just talking. Nearly 400 acquisitions have been completed in the past six months under the new framework.
Reorganizing the bureaucracy
