The US Army is making a new $700 million bet on AI that helps soldiers turn battlefield intelligence into targets

Striveworks' Chariot program develops and trains AI agents and models that support battlefield operations. US Army photo by Spc. Jonathan Reyes The US Army is making a major investment in expanding the use of an artificial intelligence platform to help soldiers process battlefield intelligence and make decisions faster.The $700 million deal between the Army and Striveworks is a tenfold increase from the initial enterprise contract and will bring the company's Chariot AI platform to more units and missions. Chariot is also at the core of the Army's new warfighting software, Next Generation Command and Control, or NGC2.On Thursday, Striveworks announced the expanded agreement after months of growing demand for Chariot. Jim Rebesco, cofounder and CEO of Striveworks, told Business Insider that soldiers across specialties, from logistics to artillery, have been using the technology for different tasks.Chariot serves as a hub for AI decision-making, deploying agents to process data and provide human users with information and next steps that align with their jobs, priorities, and commander decisions."Those folks are constantly receiving this data coming in from radio, reports, from sensors, from drones," Rebesco explained, "and the first job is to decide: is that a target worth paying attention to? Is it a military vehicle? Is it a tank? Is it something valuable? If so, does that meet with what my commander's priorities are?"Chariot helps soldiers work through those questions, analyzing incoming data, checking relevant doctrine and legal standards, and comparing potential targets against the commander's priorities."It does everything that a team of four to 10 individuals would do over a period of about an hour; it compresses that down into minutes," Rebesco said. Chariot is a core AI element of NGC2, the Army's new warfighting software, which is being scaled to I Corps after previous iterative developments. Courtney Harris/US Army Test and Evaluation Command Commanders and soldiers at the Army's 4th Infantry Division, for example, have used Chariot and provided feedback to Striveworks. At Project Convergence Capstone 6 at Fort Irwin, California, Chariot helped soldiers analyze and process more potential targets.Rebesco said feedback from those exercises and others has been implemented quickly to improve the program's accuracy, speed, and the quality of information provided to soldiers. Chariot is a key AI component of NGC2, the Army's new command-and-control program developed and tested with soldiers and industry partners in Colorado and Hawaii over the past year. After Project Convergence Capstone, the Army decided to transition NGC2 into the next phase of scaling, pushing it to I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.Next steps will include making the technology available to more soldiers and ensuring it is sufficiently rugged to operate in harsh, dispersed environments, including the Indo-Pacific. Chariot also works with other military systems, including Maven and the Integrated Battle Command System, with the same data and agentic processes.The Pentagon and the different military services are spending billions on AI to speed up battlefield decisions, analyze vast amounts of sensor data, and anticipate ammunition shortages and maintenance needs. Another goal is to lighten cognitive burdens on human users by helping soldiers make sense of more information, faster."We know the biggest risk to our national security and our national defense is not moving too fast. It's not moving fast enough," former Army secretary Dan Driscoll said after Project Convergence Capstone in July."The side that can sense a target, process the data, and deliver a kinetic effect the fastest wins." Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Chris Panella is a defense reporter for Business Insider. He covers technological transformations in the US military with focuses on US military modernization, US Army transformation, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and drones. Globally, Panella reports on China's military and Taiwan. Panella has embedded with the Army in Alaska, interviewed special operators learning to fly drones, and flown with US Coast Guard helicopters practicing drug interdictions. If you have a tip related to these areas or broader defense coverage, Panella can be reached at cpanella@businessinsider.com or on Signal at cpanella.85. Defense AI