Amazon Selects Corps to Pilot AI Training
By Col. Jamie Cogbill, Deputy Director for the Rice Center for Leader Development
In fall 2025, the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets was chosen to lead a national-level pilot, focusing on senior military colleges (SMCs), to prepare future defense leaders for an AI-driven world. Amazon Web Services (AWS) partnered with the Virginia Tech National Security Institute (VTNSI) and the Corps to launch a first-of-its-kind generative AI training program for both cadets and civilian students, aimed at closing the AI skills gap in the defense sector and preparing students for a transforming national security workforce.
This partnership directly answers a White House call to make senior military colleges hubs for AI talent and innovation. Released in July 2025, the White House AI Action Plan specifically called for SMCs to become centers of AI research, development, and talent-building. Based on this, David Appel, a vice president for AWS and VTNSI board member, approached Eric Paterson, VTNSI director, last summer, seeking to put Virginia Tech cadets at the forefront of this proposal to teach emerging AI, and to introduce future defense leaders to these technologies early.
Last fall, AWS delivered a series of virtual, instructor-led sessions and a competitive “Jam” lab where cadets practiced prompt engineering and problem-solving in gamified, real-world scenarios. The training also introduced students to Amazon’s “Bedrock” Generative AI platform. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Cadet Tristan Price, who took all three modules of the training said the training provided worthwhile experience with AI, AWS Bedrock, and related technology. “This course showed me that the way we word our AI prompts and what resources we give it has a tremendous effect on the output we receive, and we can achieve more than we ever thought possible from the technology if we work a little smarter. AI is now another tool in the toolbox rather than a magical black box,” said Price.
The training also provided cadets exposure to potential career pathways at one of the nation’s leading technology companies and opportunities to earn AWS certification vouchers, giving them a recognized credential that employers in defense, intelligence, and industry value. By reserving at least half of the training seats for cadets, Virginia Tech ensured this program directly benefits future officers who will lead in an AI-transformed battlespace.
Based on the positive feedback, leaders from AWS scheduled Phase II of this pilot, held this spring. During that phase, AWS offered four new 4-hour training sessions to over 30 students, more than half being cadets.
Amazon hopes to eventually expand this training to other senior military colleges and civilian universities, creating a talent pipeline that will benefit our federal government and American private industry.
With increasing complexity and opportunity in the national security and technological landscape, partnerships between industry and academia are essential. AI is changing the nature of national security, and programs such as this ensure our future military and civilian leaders can lead confidently in that environment, demonstrating an excellent example of how academia, industry, and government can come together to make that happen.