US Army enlists ASU to help modernize military learning
Pennsylvania Army National Guard Soldiers and civilian personnel learn to integrate artificial intelligence into military workflows during a two-day AI course taught by U.S. Army War College faculty at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania Feb. 11-12. Courtesy of U.S. Army.
By Marshall Terrill
March 12, 2026
Early last year over dinner at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall near Washington D.C., Arizona State University President Michael Crow met with U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy A. George for what was expected to be a routine conversation.
Instead, it stretched into hours, an animated exchange about the future of learning, leadership and the rapidly changing demands on today’s soldiers. That exchange sparked a new collaboration between ASU and the Army to help redesign how soldiers are educated.
ASU, known for innovation and educating at scale, will help the Army reimagine how one of the world’s largest military forces learns. The collaboration looks to innovate professional military education using digital platforms, immersive tools and data-driven insights.
ASU will work directly with Army training centers of excellence to modernize curriculum and course design, updating lessons to reflect current technological and instructional best practices. Students from the Army War College and the Command and General Staff College, now unified under Army University, will complete their coursework through ASU-managed applications, with access to more than 130 digital learning technologies.
“ASU has demonstrated proficiency in redesigning itself as an efficient, tech-enabled and adaptable leader in learning and innovation,” Crow said. “We are proud of the opportunity to partner with the U.S. Army and excited to share our valuable lessons, expertise and tools to help inspire and prepare our nation’s military forces in an increasingly complex world.”
Chris Howard, ASU executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the partnership reflects the university’s responsibility and desire to be of service to the country.
“There is a need to take soldiers and ensure they’re getting the best, most cutting-edge learning that they can to be effective, and that’s where we step in. We want to help every single soldier to be a master learner, a lifelong learner,” said Howard, an Air Force veteran and a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. “We’re not just supporting systems. We’re side by side helping to rethink how the Army educates, trains and innovates around learning.”
The collaboration with the Army will build on ASU’s earlier work to help modernize professional military education for the U.S. Air Force.
Ryan Shaw, managing director of strategic initiatives at ASU, said the university and the Army are responding to a new era of rapid change in education and technology. As artificial intelligence reshapes how people learn and work, institutions are reimagining how they prepare learners for the future.
“As an Army veteran myself, I can tell you that the Army education system is great — it’s been the envy of the world for generations,” Shaw said. “Now we have an opportunity to build on that strong foundation. The world is changing faster than ever, and education must evolve alongside it. With AI and new technologies, we can create learning experiences that are more adaptive, more personalized and better aligned with today’s pace of innovation.”
Military conflicts evolve faster than ever. From unmanned aerial systems to data-driven battlefield technologies, new capabilities emerge quickly. Yet professional military education and technical training structures often operate on legacy timelines, creating what Army leaders describe as a mismatch between need and delivery. Slower adoption of new capabilities can reduce adaptability across the force and leave education systems struggling to keep up with emerging threats.
To close that gap, the Army is seeking structural change, Shaw said, and, “it’s both exciting and very humbling that they’ve asked ASU to partner in this effort.”
In some cases, ASU teams are working lesson by lesson alongside Army counterparts to reboot coursework, including subjects such as math and physics at certain training centers where pass rates have been a concern. The goal is to modernize platforms and improve outcomes.
“We are in a pivotal era of Army transformation and education reform sits at the center of that effort. Our collaboration with Arizona State University supports Army University’s effort to deliver modern, adaptive learning to soldiers at every level,” said Maj. Gen. Trevor J. Bredenkamp, president and commanding general of Army University.
The Army effort builds on ASU’s earlier partnership with the U.S. Air Force, which began in 2019. What started as modernization of the Air University student information system expanded to serve tens of thousands of Air Force personnel annually. More than 100,000 Air Force learners have used ASU-supported systems since 2020.
The Army partnership also reflects ASU’s broader public mission as a national service institution, applying its scale, digital expertise and innovation infrastructure to address complex public challenges. In this case, the challenge is ensuring that one of the world’s largest military forces can adapt as quickly as the environment it operates in.
