Human-AI teams in complex military operations: Soldiers’ perception of intelligent AI agents as teammates in human-AI teams

Abstract

Military decision-making frequently involves complex problems in non-routine situations with minimal rule-based or automated solutions. As human information processing capabilities are limited, processing the required scale of information increases the decision-makers’ workload, impacting their situational awareness and affecting the quality of soldiers’ decisions. This study uses a route clearance task as a use-case scenario to understand the issues in team-level decision-making in military tasks, the challenges in successfully completing the mission, and the demands placed on AI teammates when working in a human-AI team. We interviewed eight subject matter experts with prior experience in route clearance operations. The themes generated by analyzing the interview transcripts provide insights into soldiers’ perceptions of AI teammates as well as recommendations for successfully integrating human-AI teams in military settings.