BigBear.ai shares surge after the intelligence solution provider powered by artificial intelligence (AI) secured a $165 million five-year contract with the US Army. BigBear.ai CEO Mandy Long sits down with Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton on Market Domination Overtime to discuss the deal and the company's position in the AI market.

"The basis of GFIM," which stands for Global Force Information Management, "is really about empowering senior leaders and combatant commanders to make data-driven force structure decisions. The intent here being that we can make decisions with greater confidence and we can ensure that the Army is properly manned, equipped, trained and resourced," Long tells Yahoo Finance.

The CEO says the company "is continuing to move upstream in these competitive bids," explaining that with the GFIM contract, "We went up against, you know, a lot of the big boys that are out there, and this is a formidable achievement for us because it's a sole source, prime award, which for a company like BigBear.ai is a huge milestone moment because it means that we are now in the game right at scale as a prime."

Taking a look at the AI space as a whole, Long explains her view that AI will broaden beyond current applications. "I believe we're going to see a huge amount of AI adopted across industries in a lot of those environments where patterns exist because that's where AI excels today... Then over time, I think we'll move upstream into some of these more esoteric use cases."

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Big Bear A I shares are getting lift after or got a lift after the company received a $165 million contract from the US army.

The five year production contract to contribute to the army's digital transformation efforts in the age of artificial intelligence.

We're taking look at the shifting landscape for decision intelligence with the CEO of Big Bear A I that is Mandy Long Mandy.

Thank you so much for being here.

So this contract, first of all, just talk us through the contract.

What exactly you guys are gonna be doing as part of it?

So this is a, a long time coming and a, a huge amount of effort by the team.

Um I'm incredibly proud of this milestone for the company.

The, the basis of G I is really about empowering senior leaders and combatant commanders to make data driven for structure decisions.

The intent here being that we can make decisions with greater confidence and we can ensure that the army is properly manned, equipped, trained and resourced.

Mandy.

Let me ask you when, when you're competing for these contracts who are you competing against?

I mean, who's in the bake off?

And what, what is your competitive advantage there?

So we often, I think something that we've been working on really hard at Big Berry.

The GFM contract for us is a, is something we've been pursuing for years.

We've talked about, uh GFM for several years and previous earnings announcements.

It's a pursuit that we have been on.

Um we've gone phase by phase and it was a process that was extremely competitive.

Um We went up against, you know, a lot of the, a lot of the Big boys that are out there and, and this is a, it's a formidable achievement for us because it's a sole source prime award, right?

Which for a company like Big Bear A I is a huge milestone moment because it means that we are now in the game, right at, at scale as a prime.

Um And I think the the key for us, right is that we have focused for years on developing deep partnerships with our customers.

You know, our, our folks come from the missions, right?

We, we leverage cutting edge edge technology and we leverage our domain expertise over decades and decades of work to deliver solutions that focus on some of the most complex challenges that the dod faces.

And Manny, you referred to the big the Big boys, meaning you know, the sort of legacy defense contractors.

And that brings up a question for me about sort of where we are in that evolution to that next generation of contractors and whether the Big Boy so to speak, are housing some of that knowledge and ability, or is it more migrating to players like yourselves or even some privately held companies and other smaller upstarts?

Where are we sort of in that continuum right now?

You know, I think some of the recent wins that we've seen and if I use an example of an exercise that we participated in recently, uh the Department of Defense T rex 24 2, right?

That is, that's an exercise that's held it included, you know, more than 75 new as well as innovative defense technologies.

And that did include, right, some of the traditional prime contractors that we see in the space, but it also included a large cohort of transformative technologies for us.

It was a big milestone because as you, you know, as you think about disrupting the space, when we look forward into the adoption of artificial intelligence, the proliferation of pushing that type of technology to the edge.

It's why we've been investing in conductor OS for more than a year.

And T rex 24 2 was the first time that we were able to deploy that edge infrastructure technology in an operating environment to, to build a cop, right, a common operating picture for the customer and it was a breakout moment for the company, you know, Mandy A I, it's a tool and it's a potentially very powerful one.

I'm curious, are, are there certain industries, certain sectors where you think, you know, you're gonna see the most disruption and kind of near intermediate term here?

So this is a bigger question than big bear A I, but one that, you know, I've, I've been around is I've seen a variety of different industries attempt to really break into the use of artificial intelligence in productive environments.

And that's really the key here.

How do you go from an expensive and exciting set of experiments into operational environments where there's tangible or ro I and in industries, you know, one of the industries that I spent, you know, more than a decade in which is health care, you know, we, I think we saw and have continued to see great adoption in that space of the use of artificial intelligence.

Now, one of the things that I stress a lot is that where I believe we're gonna see a huge amount of A I adopted across industries is in a lot of those environments where patterns exist because that's where A I excels today and the ability to introduce automation in things that have historically either introduced cost or expense right to companies or slowed down time to deliver customer value, right?

That's, that's gonna be the stuff where we see it first and then over time.

I think we'll move upstream and to some of these more esoteric use cases.