Unlocking Human Potential

For example, while athletes can use periodization to finetune their training and peak for a specific function or event, warfighters—and especially unconventional forces—need to be ready to perform whenever and wherever the mission calls, often with little to no advanced notice or rest and recovery time between deployments. Similarly, athletes play on a known field and face known adversaries, while warfighters operate in unknown areas, in unfamiliar conditions, against anonymous enemies. What’s more, warfighters face unique military-specific stressors, such as the possibility of having to take actions that may cause serious injury or death.

Over time, these stressors may exact a profound toll on the warfighter’s cognitive, physical, and emotional wellbeing. The impact of this toll on the warfighter’s career, life, and family cannot be understated. By quantifying these types of stressors through biometrics, the field of human performance applied to the unique conditions of the military impacts both personal and mission success—extending an individual’s fitness for duty and for their return to civilian life.

The delivery of biometrics through human performance platforms creates a snapshot of the warfighter’s complex physical and psychological system. But for a complete picture, the military has another valuable tool: mission analytics, which are specific to the management and execution of the mission. Applied to warfighters, mission analytics evaluate the effectiveness and precision of operational activity. For example, in modern military training, warfighters and their weapons can be outfitted with sensors that provide data about what soldiers are doing at any given moment, such as where they are looking, whether they are pointing their weapons in the right direction at the right time, or how they follow doctrine in activities such as room clearing.

Together, integrated data from mission analytics and human performance offers the military a powerful new way to enhance training and accelerate readiness (see Figure 1). And it empowers individuals to make changes to improve their own readiness with data-driven feedback. Here’s a basic example: A marksmanship trainer can evaluate an individual’s shooting technique through observation but cannot see what hidden factors might be influencing poor performance. But integrated data may show that although an individual’s technique is good, their pulse, blood pressure, and breathing rise when they squeeze the trigger, leading to underperformance. With this data, the trainer can work with the individual on controlling their heart rate and respiration, paired with proper marksmanship, to hit the target.

This integrated analysis can also be used in environments that are adjacent to the battlespace. For example, a special forces unit could use integrated analytics to support the performance and well-being of operators who disseminate critical, sensitive analytics to the field in real time. Imagine that these operators sit behind a desk for 8 to 10 hours each shift and are under extreme pressure to perform consistently and rapidly, especially during periods of high-intensity operations and cognitive overload. Data from wearables can capture a range of biometrics from these operators, including heart rate variability (HRV; see sidebar below) and sleep quality. By combining these metrics with mission analytics, leaders can track not only the accuracy of the decisions and work itself, but also understand how operators are functioning based on reaction time, working memory, and overall resilience. With this information in hand, units can better support operators with training and education for more consistent, controlled, and resilient performance.

However, the benefits of combining mission analytics and human performance go well beyond individual readiness and recovery. Elite tactical units can be thought of as complex adaptive systems that work together to carry out the mission. In such a system, outcomes can be nonlinear with respect to the number of people on the team. When faced with unexpected adversity or the loss of teammates, members of high-performing teams improvise and adapt to overcome. Their collective output can exceed all expectations. Such outsized team performance requires everyone to perform at the peak of their potential. Advanced analytics is the key to unlocking this force multiplier effect.

Advanced Analytics for Accelerated Readiness

The power of coupling biometric and mission performance data lies in how it is analyzed and applied so leaders can make responsible, effective decisions about their formations. For example, instead of making decisions about personnel based on intuition and observation, leaders can use psychophysiological data to track subtle indicators and anomalies that predict compromised performance. That’s where predictive data analytics, AI, and machine learning (ML) come into play.

Automated AI algorithms empower leaders with a current and future-state snapshot of individual and team readiness. With predictive analytics, they can anticipate when members may not perform at their peak capacity because they need to recover from injury, illness, or other stressors. Detecting potential threats in advance creates opportunities to deliver preventive care individuals need before compromising their health or the mission.

In practice, however, how does this intelligence come together for individuals and their leaders to digest and use for decision-making?Dashboards and visualizations (see Figure 2) must be set up with end users in mind to deliver an analysis that is accessible, actionable, and relevant so clear actions can be taken.

These dashboards cater to various user personas, including individual warfighters, unit leaders, and commanders. Individuals can use the information to improve readiness on their own by identifying and addressing things like sleep quality, cardio conditioning, and stress levels. Unit commanders can use information about individuals to assemble the best-performing team for a particular mission. And senior commanders can focus on overall readiness for the battlespace by projecting the performance of U.S. forces.

Glimpsing the Future

Technological breakthroughs will continue to expand the potential for integrated and personalized human performance and mission analytics.

The research community is also advancing the field, applying emerging methods, such as the physics-derived Lyapunov model of how chaotic systems work together, with sensor data to derive new insights about human performance. The opportunity to accelerate force readiness and effectiveness by harnessing advances in biometric and mission-sensing technologies and cutting-edge data analytics is limitless. And the landscape is changing quickly, with future mission applications coming into view. As we look to the future of human performance, areas of high-impact innovation include:

• Human-machine teaming. Advances in autonomous sensors can one day allow machines to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their human partner, then make up the deficit to improve performance of the team as a whole.

• Digital twins. Next-generation simulations— including digital twins of humans—will continue informing how defense organizations design, integrate, and field new systems into combat ensembles.

• Noninvasive neurosensing. Neuroplasticity means human performance changes over time, so the neuroscience element of warfighter training is essential. Technological innovations in noninvasive sensing devices—through electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems—are further expanding ways to get reliable, precise data about brain activity during high-intensity training periods.

• Wearables. Investments in advanced levels of customization will help wearable technology meet the specialized needs of individuals in the military community. “Innovation on this front will allow for more unique, rich biometrics,” Jeff Collins, a human performance lead at ŌURA, maker of Oura Ring, said recently. “It will also allow for new mechanisms, such as measuring data optically through the skin.”

Each of these advancements should be centered around empowering warfighters to understand and act on their own data, as Spann did at the Warrior Games. “Information is great, but it’s what you do with it that matters,” Collins added. “Metrics should give insight into how a person is exerting and recovering, offering suggestions and assistance along the way.”

As individuals swiftly identify and tackle cognitive and physical issues, they can enhance their performance, boost their recovery, and remain healthy and resilient for longer, leading to extended and more sustainable military careers. This career extension is especially critical today, given the convergence of factors that is making it extremely challenging for the military to meet its recruiting needs. The benefits of improved warfighter well-being to the military overall compound quickly, supporting a more effective force.

But these breakthroughs are not ultimately about the technology or the insights that can be derived through AI. They are about the military’s greatest asset—its force, from warfighters to operators—and optimizing their individual physical and psychological readiness and performance on and off the battlefield.

Munjeet Singh is a senior vice president and the leader of Booz Allen’s BrightLabs incubator, an experimentation organization designed to develop, test, and incubate mission-centric solutions rooted in emerging technology.

Cameron Mayer, a senior vice president at Booz Allen, leads the firm’s Defense Accelerated Readiness business with a focus on data-driven solutions.

Dave Prakash, MD, is an executive advisor at Booz Allen, an Air Force veteran pilot, and a physician—focusing his expertise on AI for defense and health.

Irik Johnson is the lead scientist driving Booz Allen’s human performance solutions to improve efficiency in training and mission readiness.

Andie Rauta is an innovation strategy expert specializing in crafting innovation programs for commercial, defense, intelligence, and federal clients.

Sonya Rahmani is a director and chief technologist leading Booz Allen’s warfighter performance solutions.

Topics: Emerging Technologies