America’s AI Moment

AI is no longer hypothetical.

It is systems, shipped and scaled.

From lab notes to national missions.

Let’s build what matters.

Sponsor of This Week’s AI Newsletter:
This edition is brought to you by the clients, teammates, mentors, friends, and incredible minds whose shoulders I have stood on for a long time. Without you, this chapter would not be possible.

My journey did not start with a keynote or a venture pitch. It started on Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I would drive a used 1995 Mercury Grand Marquis from Beacon Street to Storrow Drive, cross the Mass Ave Bridge to Memorial Drive, then cut over to Mount Auburn. It felt like a boat on wheels.

Eventually the steering failed and that beautiful 4.6-liter V8 block of good old fashion American muscle was towed to the automotive graveyard.

I would sit in a small office and read DoD SBIR projects all day, looking for a path from science to market. This was the early wave of AI. It was exciting and new. I would stare at Gantt charts and try to figure out where commercialization could fit.

The idea of commercializing AI felt novel and audacious.

I left because I wanted to build something that touched consumers directly. I started a price comparison app that used computer vision and mobile cameras. The next few years were exhilarating and uncomfortable. I learned enterprise integration the hard way and discovered how much discipline it takes to move from code to product to adoption. The startup did not ultimately succeed or exit, but it opened the door to advisory work with senior executives. I helped leaders build teams, select vendors, design systems, and ship technology that had to work in the real world.

When the current AI wave accelerated with tools like ChatGPT, I knew it was time to scale up again.

Today I am pleased to share that Sprinklenet has been awarded a GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract. This gives federal agencies a direct path to engage us for AI strategy, integration, development, support, and training.

We can field full lifecycle teams that include AI systems architects, engineers, data professionals, compliance specialists, and mission experts.

We are honored to do this work alongside thoughtful people who are shaping how AI will improve government services and daily life for millions.

🔒 Security and Access Control: Protect data in motion and at rest. Enforce least privilege. Keep humans in the loop for decisions that carry risk.

🧭 Compliance and IP Stewardship: Document ownership of inputs and outputs. Maintain audit trails and evidence of model behavior. Treat governance as design, not paperwork.

🛡️ Guardrails and Observability: Control models, prompts, and policies. Monitor drift, bias, latency, and cost. Treat safety and performance as equal goals.

🎯 Precision with People: Validate on real workloads. Pair AI with domain experts. Use human review to handle edge cases and raise confidence.

Modernization succeeds when new capability complements what already works. In practice that means treating AI as an overlay that reads from and writes to systems of record through stable interfaces.

Use controlled connectors, staged batches, and secure APIs. Preserve authoritative data while adding intelligence at the edges.

Test in a mirrored environment. Pilot with representative data and user workflows. Phase rollouts, keep rollback plans, and measure reliability, cost, and accuracy against baselines.

Stability is not the enemy of progress. It is the platform for it.

Alignment starts with a clear mission problem and a shared definition of better. Bring program leaders, engineers, contracting, legal, training, and finance into the same room. Set visible success metrics and track them together.

GSA MAS gives agencies a ready path to engage Sprinklenet. We also support FAR-based buying across programs and are actively involved in the AI conversation that is likely to shape future FAR updates. We are formalizing this work through FACET (Federal Acquisitions Compliance and Emerging Technology Council), in collaboration with Jennifer Rowe and other compliance experts. Our goal is practical guidance that connects program objectives, acquisition rules, and the day-to-day realities of AI delivery.

If you’re a mission leader or contracting official, partner with us on pilots and modernization initiatives that can scale. Start small, document decisions, and turn results into a repeatable acquisition pattern.

Procurement and compliance professionals are invited to join FACET and help shape templates, evaluation criteria, and post-award operating practices that hold up in production.

Join the group here or connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn.

Strategy Choices to Weigh:

What to do next: pick one high-value workflow, define the success metric, run a 60 to 90 day pilot, and publish the playbook. Align to OMB guidance and NIST AI RMF from the start.

Book a focused 1-hour strategy session with Jamie.

✅ Evaluate current architecture and readiness
✅ Identify quick wins and hidden risks
✅ Get tailored, actionable next steps

👇🏼 Book a Strategy Call

Make Your Own Luck. Nearly two decades of focus meeting a moment that matters. These tracks capture preparation, momentum, and the decision to scale up now. I am featuring Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” and other energy-forward picks that mirror this week’s message about commitment and timing.

🎺🎧 Note: Web edition only.