PHILADELPHIA –
Over three sessions, nearly 100 Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Clothing and Textiles employees attended a new series about artificial intelligence earlier this month.
C&T’s Culture Improvement Team hosted sessions from a new series, “Artificial Intelligence: An Explainer,” August 13, 14 and 21 to explore and discuss AI’s application in the workforce.
“We identified the need for this class, now series, after discussions and interactions in the workplace,” said C&T Executive Agent Team Logistics Planner Tanner Holland. “We saw the reception of the first data acumen series and noted a disparity of what the course sought to teach and what the workforce had retained in their everyday.”
Holland co-hosts the series with CIT lead and EA Team Logistics Systems Analyst Mark Stone.
“We have had two filled-to-capacity sessions, which ‘sold out’ in less than 24 hours,” Stone said prior to the most recent session. The third session was also held in a larger venue due to employee interest.
“There is interest in the series from the workforce from across the country to Japan,” Stone said. “That need/demand let us know that the workforce is hungry for innovation- something new.”
Stone and team have the full support of C&T leadership to advance the series with the goal of compiling data from forums, discussions and “use-case” scenarios to innovate daily processes, he said.
This innovation also aligns with components of DLA’s Strategic Plan 2025-2030, specifically to “strengthen digital interoperability and developing Artificial Intelligence-powered solutions to achieve decision advantage.”
“Mark and I sit in many briefings where we hear [DLA Director Army Lt. Gen. Mark T. Simerly] and others talk about using AI to push our enterprise forward, so we know it’s something that our teammates will need to stay appraised of as we seek to modernize our supply chain,” Holland said.
During the sessions Holland described basic artificial intelligence as anything a machine can do that replicate, resembles or imitates human intelligence including automations.
“Artificial intelligence is a large category,” Holland said. “It’s a catchall word we use to describe a host of different machine processes in different computer science applications.”
Holland also explained AI subcategories of machine and deep learning and mechanisms of the technology based on networks of algorithms.
“An algorithm is a mathematically complex series of processes that basically enable a machine to classify and understand the world as it exists,” Holland said.
Session discussion topics varied from the ethical effects of AI to using approved Generative Pre-trained Transformers or GPTs in workflows. Holland also shared training resources employees can access to further expand their understanding and application of AI.