Ratcliffe details ‘fundamental reshaping’ of CIA tech efforts | Federal News Network

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Ratcliffe details ‘fundamental reshaping’ of CIA tech efforts

CIA Director John Ratcliffe says the spy agency wants to complete most acquisitions within six months, as it pursues enterprise AI and other emerging tech.

Justin Doubleday@jdoubledayWFED

June 30, 2026 1:59 pm

4 min read

CIA Director John Ratcliffe says the secretive spy agency has reorganized key mission centers, drastically cut down acquisition timelines and focused industry partnerships through a new office, all in pursuit of better harnessing artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

During a keynote address at the Amazon Web Services Summit in Washington on Tuesday, Ratcliffe detailed the CIA’s efforts to more quickly acquire AI and other digital tools.

“Increasingly, all of our future successes are going to depend on technology,” he said. “We have to continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, because the nation that best harnesses the power of technology will determine the global future.”

The CIA earlier this year announced a new acquisition framework aimed at speeding up technology adoption. During his address today, Ratcliffe said the approach has “dramatically shortened our timelines for onboarding new technology.”

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Prior to 2025, he said the average time for the CIA to onboard a new enterprise technology was 24 months, plus an additional nine months for the security assessment.

“By that time, the technology has become outdated,” Ratcliffe said.

But under the new approach – which involves centralized vendor vetting and streamlined authorization processes – the CIA is aiming to acquire new technologies within six months. Those efforts are being spearheaded by Efstathia Fragogiannis, who joined the CIA as chief procurement executive in November. She previously had the same role at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

While virtually every aspect of the CIA’s acquisition and contracting processes is withheld from public disclosure. Ratcliffe claimed the agency has already completed nearly 400 acquisitions in the last six months under the new process.

“We’re stripping away all of the cumbersome red tape, we’re delegating down to the lowest possible level to ensure that those who are closest to the issues are the ones who are making the decision,” he said.

He said the CIA is additionally providing a “more structured approach” to working with the private sector through a new Office of Corporate Partnerships, which Ratcliffe said will provide a “single point of access” for industry to work with the agency.

“We recognize that when it comes to partnering with private industry, the CIA hasn’t always been the easiest agency to work with, because of both our security requirements and because we haven’t always coordinated our outreach to individual companies,” he said.

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Meanwhile, the CIA has also reorganized its Directorate of Digital Innovation and renamed it the “Directorate of Mission Systems” (DMS), Ratcliffe said.  The new directorate doesn’t have offensive cyber or open source intelligence duties, he added, and instead has a streamlined focus on core functions like cybersecurity, advanced data, and infrastructure services.

Ratcliffe also confirmed reports that the CIA elevated its Center for Cyber Intelligence into a full-fledged mission center. The CCI is responsible for the CIA’s secretive offensive cyber mission. Elevating it to a mission center brings together “a full range of operational, analytic, support, technical, and digital capabilities,” according to the CIA’s website.

Ratcliffe described DMS as the “shield” and CCI as the “sword” in cybersecurity terms.

He additionally announced an “aggressive data sprint” that is currently underway across the CIA “to enhance the discovery and exploitation of all our mission data.” The goal is to drive data standardization across the agency, he added.

“If all of this sounds to you like … these are just redrawn lines on an organizational chart, I promise you, it isn’t,” Ratcliffe said. “This is the fundamental reshaping of the CIA’s entire approach to technology.”

Meanwhile, Ratcliffe said AI “is literally transforming the way we do business.” But he provided few details on how the CIA might look to use AI.

Ratcliffe did says the agency would take “smart risks” and experiment with AI.

“While I can’t predict just how fast AI and the other emerging technologies will advance, or...