NAICS 541715 AI Marketing
R&D in the physical, engineering, and life sciences (541715) is where most federal AI dollars actually flow. Here's how AI-first firms should market to DoD, IC, DOE, and NIH.
The 541715 buyer
The 541715 buyer is a technical program officer or PI — not a contracting officer. Your marketing has to survive scrutiny from someone with a PhD who will read your papers, check your GitHub, and ask about your eval methodology.
SBIR / STTR positioning
- List every SBIR/STTR Phase I, II, and III award publicly with topic numbers.
- Name the transitioning agency (AFWERX, SOFWERX, NavalX, DIU).
- Show the commercialization pathway — dual-use is a feature, not a footnote.
Model & data credibility
- Publish model cards and dataset cards for anything you claim in marketing.
- Cite benchmarks with confidence intervals — not marketing bar charts.
- Link to open-source repos and peer-reviewed publications.
Compliance narrative
For classified and CUI workloads, spell out your enclave story: IL4/IL5/IL6 posture, AWS GovCloud vs Azure Gov, model-weight handling, and how you meet NIST AI RMF and DoD Responsible AI guidance.
Content & thought leadership
- Technical blog posts written by your engineers, not marketers.
- Whitepapers mapped to specific DoD problem sets (JADC2, ABMS, CJADC2).
- Conference talks — DAFITC, AFCEA WEST, I/ITSEC, GEOINT.
Pipeline motion
Pair inbound with a small, senior BD team that lives at DIU, AFWERX, and program offices. In 541715, one relationship with a PI is worth more than 1,000 web sessions.