How AI, automation help warfighters make decisions in high-stress situations

Data automation and AI are playing an increasingly vital role in military operations, improving decision-making processes. With ever-growing amounts of data, automation and AI help warfighters process information faster and more effectively.

With those tools, they can keep pace and make sense of the ever-growing mountain of data so decisions can be made on accelerated timelines. The Breaking Defense publication spoke to several industry experts that provide an insight into the rapidly evolving applications of AI in high-stress military situations.

“Today’s threats are ever increasing, along with the number of decisions that need to be made,” said Tim Heiser, director of defense programs at Teague, an independent design consultancy that works with the defense industry. “The challenge is in designing automation and AI systems that prioritize data that aligns with the values and priorities of the commands and their missions.”

AI-driven automation operates at three levels: in-the-loop, on-the-loop, and out-of-the-loop. Each represents a different level of human oversight in decision-making.

For in-the-loop systems, AI assists warfighters by integrating data from multiple sources, offering battle plans or decision recommendations. The final approval, however, remains with commanders, especially in ethical situations where human oversight is critical.

On-the-loop systems function with more autonomy, where humans have the ability to veto an action rather than approving it beforehand. An example of this is automated missile defense—if a pilot does not intervene, the system executes pre-programmed countermeasures.

Out-of-the-loop systems are fully autonomous, executing decisions without human approval. However, the article notes that such systems are rare in military contexts today due to ethical and operational concerns.

Regardless of the system, automation and AI are crucial to accelerating the OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) loop. “That’s been happening in pockets for some time but more and more we are hitting a critical mass where many operations are experiencing at least some degree of autonomous operation or AI enablement,” said Clint Rule, principal director of design at Teague. “There’s clear acknowledgement that these capabilities will transform doctrine.”

Role of AI in military decision-making

The Department of Defense is accelerating AI adoption by leveraging commercial technology and best practices, particularly to counter global threats. Speed and agility are essential, as innovation timelines in the commercial market have shrunk from years to months.

“The threats of today and tomorrow are at varying levels of technology and speed,” Heiser explained. “Having the capability to quickly understand each threat and make the decision to engage or not is critical. Today, the decision loop can be quite long, with built-in checks and balances that don’t necessarily add value to the task at hand. By simplifying the system to keep only the most important decisions in the loop and move oversight tasks to a more automated level, our warfighters will be more effective.”

As automation becomes more relevant in defense, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design are becoming key in ensuring warfighters can effectively interact with AI systems. Teague applies human-centered design principles to improve how military personnel engage with technology.

“We research the ‘people side’ of a problem first, before moving to a technology solution,” Heiser noted. “That’s because the real-life users should inform the design of the tech, not the other way around. It hasn’t typically been that way, in defense.”

Poor UX/UI can hinder a warfighter’s ability to fully leverage technology, the article argues, especially in high-risk situations. Complex, non-intuitive systems require longer training times and more personnel to operate. This issue is amplified by the so-called "Sunday-Monday divide," where the technology available to civilians is often more advanced and user-friendly than what military personnel use at work.

“There’s a general sense that we have to move faster than we have in the past,” said Rule. “Software is a very different beast than what the military has been dealing with when it comes to procurement and setting requirements.”

Future of military automation

The growing focus on UX/UI in defense is part of a broader shift toward adopting commercial best practices, such as DevSecOps, which ensures military software is continuously updated to adapt to evolving threats. AI-driven defense technologies, including missile defense systems and Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2), are critical in this transformation.

“Teague provides human-centered design for technology,” said Rule. “We work on autonomous tech with defense suppliers, tech companies like AWS, and large automotive companies and startups.”

As AI and automation continue to evolve, integrating human-centered design principles will be essential in ensuring warfighters can efficiently interact with these advanced systems. “Teague is able to bring in expertise from different organizations working across cutting-edge technology to better understand how humans operate in complex environments,” Rule added. “This is a perfect fit for the precipice that the military is currently at as technology, automation, and artificial intelligence explodes for them.”

By Nazrin Sadigova