Torch.AI’s Adam Lurie on National AI Impacts, Talent Recruitment and Acquisition Strategy – GovCon Wire

Adam Lurie believes in the power and potential of artificial intelligence, particularly its ability to revolutionize government operations. The technology manager began as a background investigator conducting security clearance investigations, spending more than a decade serving the security wings of various US federal agencies. After the first act of her career, Lurie chose to focus her time and energy on how best to use technology to transform the way government does business.

Lurie then launched and ran the federal operations of a social media analytics company that leveraged open source data to determine risk. It was through this that Lurie became interested in analytics and, after becoming involved in a series of mergers and acquisitions through his work in the “high-speed, high-growth world of technology”, he became director of strategy at Torch. .HAVE.

In his Executive Spotlight interview, Lurie discussed the various uses and potential impacts of AI, what matters to customers when it comes to automated technology, as well as Torch.AI’s recent growth maneuvers.

What can you tell us about the company’s recent growth initiatives and how you are creating value for your customers through contract awards, acquisitions and other aspects across the federal sector?

Torch.AI uses artificial intelligence to solve a huge data problem. Every leader of every agency and big commercial enterprise looks around and says, “Give me a glimpse of all my data.” But the problem is that this information exists in disparate data warehouses and locations. It is partitioned and in different formats. The standard process is then to duplicate the data, label it, and move it to a new location. But by the time you store the data, run this approach, the data in your new storage location is already stale.

At Torch.AI, we have created an AI-enabled data infrastructure pipeline that leaves data in its authoritative source and extracts the appropriate features or objects from it. In effect, it enables the US government and large corporations to create analysis and insights at the speed of data, not the speed of a project.

What can you tell us about the implementation of recent acquisitions you have made and how they have benefited your portfolio, your technical capabilities and the creation of value for your company and your customers?

When we target acquisitions, we look at organizations with a very specific set of customers and access to huge amounts of data. When we find these two qualities, we can be sure that the company has a hyper understanding of their client’s mission and that the use case is strengthened by the insertion of AI technology.

Over the past year, Torch.AI has completed two acquisitions. We bought a company called DataTech Group that works at the Defense Information Systems Agency, and a company called B23 that works at the Navy. Both companies have in-depth knowledge of several critical government use cases. We have been able to leverage insights, insights and insights from our platform to further support the mission of our clients.

One of the challenges of communicating AI solutions is that many people don’t care how current technology works. They care whether the technology provides value. Are we able to make decisions faster? Are we able to save money? Is there a better qualitative result? This is what is important when it comes to taking advantage of innovative technology. Our ability to find companies that truly understand the government use case at a deep level allows us to harness the full potential of AI rather than just saying, “Our technology is great for technology. »

As federal agencies strive to implement the latest technology trends such as AI, 5G, cloud, and many more, what do you think of the success and challenges government agencies are facing to keep a head start on innovation in order to establish the United States as THE world leader? ?

Three trends or topics come to mind: speed of acquisition, results-driven decision-making, and the ability to recruit and retain talented people. If you think about the speed of innovation and how commercial enterprises are building high-performance AI, it’s staggering. The way the government acquires capabilities like this makes it difficult if you spend years talking about an acquisition model.

As I mentioned before, AI technology should be results-focused and deliver clear mission outcomes. No one cares whether the technology is cutting edge if it doesn’t provide intrinsic value. The more people talk about AI as a capability and its benefits to a user, an agency, and the population, the easier it will be for AI to continue to be adopted.

The final piece is talent. Although it’s been discussed ad nauseam, there’s still a huge talent vacuum when you think about the types of STEM talent that need to develop these abilities. One of the unique features of Torch.AI is that we are based in Kansas City, which has an exceptionally strong STEM community. In fact, the Kansas City area has attracted major tech talent over the past decade, surpassing much larger cities like Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and New York. Of course, we also have offices in Washington DC, but geographic diversity gives us tremendous flexibility when it comes to finding the right people.

With artificial intelligence and machine learning having a huge impact on most industries and the US military as we move forward, what impressed you most about the abilities of technology to improve grip decision-making in the federal sector and in all areas? Additionally, how can AI be used to address some of the biggest challenges you see in your industry?

AI is a perfect application to support the mission of the government. When you remove bureaucracy, administration and politics, advanced technology and AI will be used to bring value to the people of the United States. Whether protecting our national security through the Department of Defense or providing improved health services through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, AI has the ability to improve the quality of life of everyone who receives essential services from the U.S. government.