Learning by demonstration technology has long held the promise to empower non-programmers to customize and extend software. We describe the deployment of a learning by demonstration capability to support user creation of automated procedures in a collaborative planning environment that is used widely by the U.S. Army. This technology, which has been in operational use since the summer of 2010, has helped to reduce user workloads by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks. The technology has also provided the unexpected benefit of enabling standardization of products and processes. 

While the concept of learning by demonstration has been around for many years, recent advances in artificial intelligence technology have led to a resurgence of work in the field. We describe the development and application of learning by demonstration technology to support user creation of automated procedures for a rich collaborative planning environment that is in widespread use by the U.S. Army. User feedback and evaluation results show that the technology can be used effectively by the target user community and that it has tremendous potential for improving the speed and quality of performance for a range of critical tasks.