S. 4683: Warfighter Artificial Intelligence Readiness and Preparedness Act of 2026

This bill would require the Department of Defense to study how using artificial intelligence affects military personnel’s skills, judgment, and readiness. In practical terms, it is meant to answer a basic question: when service members rely on AI tools, do they become better at their jobs overall, or do they risk losing some of the hands-on or mental skills they may still need if the technology is unavailable?

The Secretary of Defense would have to begin a broad assessment no later than August 1, 2027. That assessment would look at whether AI use changes the ability of service members to keep essential warfighting skills sharp. The bill directs the Pentagon to designate a senior official to coordinate the work, gather information across military departments and defense agencies, and help turn the findings into policy.

What the assessment would examine

• Which military jobs and operational roles are most vulnerable to skill loss if people rely on AI too heavily.
• When AI actually improves performance and when it may create a need for extra training to preserve independent judgment, awareness, or manual skills.
• How to measure the difference between useful AI support and situations where human skills may be declining.
• Whether current training and certification programs do enough to preserve skills needed for situations where AI is unavailable or unreliable.
• What changes might be needed in training, doctrine, personnel management, procurement, or readiness measures so AI use supports military readiness.

Research methods the Pentagon would be expected to use

The bill would encourage the Department of Defense to support its assessment with research such as:

• controlled experiments or high-fidelity simulations comparing performance with and without AI tools;
• long-term studies tracking how skills change over time;
• tests of how people perform when AI systems are removed or unavailable;
• measurements of how long it takes to return to baseline proficiency after extended AI-assisted work;
• methods for tracking confidence, decision-making accuracy, and situation awareness in contested or degraded conditions.

The bill specifically says the Pentagon should coordinate with organizations such as the Army Research Institute, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, and relevant military departments and readiness officials.

Reporting requirements

The bill would require two main reports to Congress:

• Within 1 year of enactment: an initial report covering early findings, which jobs are most at risk of skill atrophy, early results from experiments, risks to readiness, recommended policy or training changes, and any additional resources or research partnerships needed.
• Within 3 years of enactment: a longer-term report based on longitudinal studies, including measured rates of skill retention and atrophy, how quickly skills can be restored, performance in degraded conditions, and updated recommendations.

After each report, the Secretary of Defense would also have to brief the congressional defense committees within 90 days.

Training and doctrine review

The bill would also require the Pentagon to review whether current training programs, certification standards, and operational doctrine properly account for AI-related skill loss and degraded-mode performance. Any recommendations in the reports would need to identify which Defense Department office or component is best positioned to carry them out.

The bill does not directly change military operations, buy or ban any AI systems, or set new limits on AI use. Instead, it creates a formal process for studying how AI affects warfighters and for recommending changes to training, doctrine, and readiness policy if needed.

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