NATO wants AI that can get in the enemy’s head
Gettyimages.com/ Suchat longthara
By
Nick Wakeman
Allied Command Transformation is seeking agentic artificial intelligence tools to disrupt enemy decision-making and shape the cognitive battlefield.
NATO is using a tech challenge to find new ways to build agentic artificial intelligence systems that can influence how adversaries think, decide and act.
The Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Belgium posted a request for innovative participation on Sam.gov on Wednesday titled Agentic AI for Cognitive Warfare.
NATO apparently has concerns that adversaries are targeting the cognitive domain – exploiting emotional responses, biases, and information channels. They are doing so to shape public opinion, sow doubt and disrupt decision-making.
Interested bidders have until April 20 to respond to the solicitation for NATO Innovation Challenge 2026-1. NATO will pick 10 proposals by May 5 and they will participate in a pitch day on May 28 in Rennes, France.
NATO wants agentic AI systems that can weaken adversary military cohesion, damage the credibility of enemy leadership, and slow adversary decision cycles. Target audiences include adversary defense and security apparatus and military commanders.
Submissions should demonstrate capabilities across five stages of the strategic communications and information operations cycle: situational understanding, planning, coordination, delivery and assessment.
Solutions should be able to autonomously aggregate open-source data, detect sentiment shifts, map influence networks and generate communication strategies.
NATO is not looking for fully autonomous systems. The solicitation emphasizes human oversight, calling for "human-led judgment plus AI-enabled scale and synthesis" rather than autonomous influence decision-making.
Solutions must also comply with NATO's Principles of Responsible Use for AI that has language on lawfulness, explainability, reliability and bias mitigation.
NATA also wants to get these solutions into the field quickly. Any solutions that will take more than 12 months to field after the pitch day will be considered out of scope.
Eligible participants must be officially registered organizations headquartered in a NATO nation with beneficial owners also from NATO nations, which includes U.S.-headquartered companies.
Submissions require a concept paper, technical summary, preliminary cost estimate and a video demonstration — all capped at two pages each.