Unanimous AI Awarded Air Force Contract to Optimize Team Communication and Collaboration Using Hyperchat AI Technology

ARLINGTON, VA, UNITED STATES, May 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Unanimous AI announced today that it has been awarded a one-year Tactical Funding (TACFI) contract with AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force (DAF) and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

This contract supports the integration of Hyperchat AI™ technology into Microsoft Teams^® to optimize communication and collaboration across large organizations. This patented AI technology does not replace human stakeholders but instead uses AI agents to keep humans in the loop, amplifying their collective knowledge, wisdom, insight, and situational awareness.

With Hyperchat AI technology, distributed teams of potentially unlimited size can hold productive real-time conversations by text, voice, or video conference. A communication and collaboration breakthrough, this novel technology enables large teams with dozens or even hundreds of stakeholders to efficiently share information, debate alternatives, brainstorm options, evaluate risks, prioritize objectives, forecast outcomes, and converge on optimized solutions.

Hyperchat AI has been validated through a series of published studies (http://bit.ly/42My2NW) performed by researchers at Unanimous AI and Carnegie Mellon. These studies show that real-time deliberations using Hyperchat AI make teams more efficient and effective, speeding deliberation while enabling more accurate assessments, forecasts, prioritizations, and problem-solving.

"Hyperchat AI is designed to provide warfighters and leaders with the decision advantage required for rapid and effective operations", says Colin “DZ” Dziadaszek, AFRL Program Manager.

Hyperchat AI technology is currently available in a collaboration platform from Unanimous AI called Thinkscape^® that is used by leading corporations and organizations around the world. Now, by integrating the technology directly into Microsoft Teams through the defense department’s DoD365, Hyperchat AI can be accessible at scale across the US Air Force and other branches.

“We spent a decade studying how biological systems use Swarm Intelligence to efficiently converge on optimized decisions,” said Dr Louis Rosenberg, CEO and Chief Scientist of Unanimous AI. “Our Hyperchat AI technology enables large organizations to achieve the same benefits by harnessing and amplifying the intelligence, wisdom, and human sensibilities of large operational teams.”

How Hyperchat AI works:

Let’s say you want 50 stakeholders around the world to provide input on an urgent problem by surfacing risks, brainstorming options, debating alternatives, and converging on a set of solutions that optimize their combined knowledge, expertise, and situational awareness. You could try to bring them all together in a communication platform like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Zoom, or Slack, but they would not be able to hold a coherent and productive conversation at that scale, let alone converge on optimal solutions.

The problem isn’t the collaboration platforms themselves, but the structure of traditional human conversations. Research shows that the ideal size of a thoughtful discussion is only about 4 to 7 people, as that size provides each individual with sufficient airtime to speak and low wait-time to respond to others. But as group size grows, airtime drops, wait-time increases, and deliberations weaken. Above 10 to 12 people, it ceases to be a conversation, devolving into a set of monologues.

Hyperchat AI solves this problem by creating a conversational hyper-structure modeled on the dynamics of fish schools. The first step is to divide the large group into a set of parallel subgroups, each sized for thoughtful conversation. The next step is to provide each subgroup with a specialized AI agent called a Conversational Surrogate that extracts human insights from its local subgroup and shares those insights with the surrogate agents in other subgroups. Those agents express the received human insights conversationally, weaving all the subgroups into a single large-scale discussion that can efficiently explore problems, debate options, and converge on solutions.

Unlike AI technologies that replace human stakeholders, Hyperchat AI keeps humans in the loop by connecting stakeholders in optimal ways that maximize their collective brainpower. The objective is to enable large operational teams to deliberate together as superintelligent systems that work significantly faster and smarter than traditional teams.

In a 2024 study (https://bit.ly/4tndKFW) researchers at Unanimous AI and Carnegie Mellon tested hyper-connected human groups with standardized IQ tests. Results showed that individuals who averaged 100 IQ (50th percentile) performed at 128 IQ (97th percentile) when connected by Hyperchat AI technology. Even more exciting, each hyper-connected group didn’t just outperform its average member, it outperformed all of its members. This represents the first published example of turning interconnected human groups into a real-time Collective Superintelligence.

Hyperchat AI can connect groups by text, voice, or videoconference. In addition, it can support teams that engage synchronously, semi-synchronously, or asynchronously. More information about how the technology works is available in this short informational video (https://bit.ly/4w8ThXS).

In addition, the Hyperchat AI engine can optionally include Unanimous’ AgentSwarm™ technology. This is an interconnected set of assistive Contributor Agents (called Infobots) that proactively provide teams with relevant factual information as they need it. Again, these agents do not replace people – they observe deliberating human teams and support the discussion with helpful details that drive more informed plans, decisions, or forecasts. In a 2024 published study, Unanimous AI tested Infobots in group forecasting tasks. 85% of participants agreed with the statement “Our decisions were stronger because of information provided by the Infobot” and only 4% disagreed.

“Hyperchat AI is a breakthrough in collaboration, communication, and collective intelligence,” says David Baltaxe, President of Unanimous AI. “We are excited for the opportunity to work with the U.S. Air Force and enable its Microsoft Teams deployments to utilize our technology. This will enable large, distributed USAF teams to solve critical problems more quickly and effectively. Ultimately, our goal is to enable organizations to get the most from their people by using AI to support, amplify, and unleash their combined brainpower as a Collective Superintelligence.”

Unanimous AI is a leading developer of AI tools that optimize collaboration and amplify team intelligence while keeping humans in the loop. The company’s Swarm^® and Thinkscape^® platforms have been used by leading organizations around the world from Fortune 500 corporations and major-league sports teams, to hedge funds, the Department of Energy, and the United Nations.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

About Unanimous AI
Unanimous AI develops technologies that make human teams significantly smarter. Modeled on the dynamics of biological swarms, its patented Swarm AI^®, Hyperchat AI™, and AgentSwarm™ technologies turn networked teams into a Collective Superintelligence. Unanimous AI’s award-winning software platforms, Swarm^® and Thinkscape^®, have been validated by numerous academic studies and are used by large organizations around the world. For more information, visit: unanimous.ai.

About AFRL
The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces. With a workforce spanning across nine technology areas and 40 other operations around the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit afresearchlab.com.

About AFWERX
As the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force and a division within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings American ingenuity from small businesses and startups to solve the most pressing challenges facing Airmen and Guardians. Headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, AFWERX strengthens the defense industrial base by expanding access to nontraditional vendors, building new defense partnerships and accelerating the transition of critical technologies to operational capability. In fiscal year 2025, AFWERX awarded more than 1,000 contracts totaling $1.37 billion and achieved 438 Phase III transitions valued at $8.1 billion, supercharging the industrial base that supports U.S. military readiness and battlefield advantage. For more information, visit afwerx.com.

Company Press Contact:
David Baltaxe, Unanimous AI
info@unanimous.ai

David Baltaxe
Unanimous AI
info@unanimous.ai

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