TITLE:
A Framework for Adaptive Human-AI Teaming in Military Contexts
AUTHORS:
John Murray, Elise G. Annett, James Giordano
KEYWORDS:
Artificial Intelligence, Command and Control, Military Decision-Making Process, Human-AI Teaming, SYNTHComm, Adaptive Autonomy, Cognitive Governance, Decision Superiority, Multidomain Operations, Military Planning
JOURNAL NAME:
Intelligent Control and Automation,
Vol.17 No.4,
September
3,
2026
ABSTRACT: Artificial intelligence (AI) is enhancing military planning by expanding computational capacity, accelerating information synthesis, and strengthening decision support across complex operational environments. As multidomain operations, persistent sensing, and compressed decision timelines continue to shape the future battlespace, the effective integration of AI will depend upon structured approaches that align computational capability with commander intent, human judgment, and accountable command. Existing doctrine establishes the importance of meaningful human control while encouraging AI-enabled decision support; the present work advances those principles by providing a practical framework for adaptive human-AI collaboration throughout military planning. Herein, we operationalize Synthesized Command and Control (SYNTHComm) within the U.S. Army’s Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) by defining complementary roles for commanders, staffs, and AI-enabled systems across each stage of planning; an adaptive autonomy function is introduced that calibrates human-AI collaboration according to mission complexity, temporal compression, and information uncertainty while preserving commander authority, accountability, and operational judgment. SYNTHComm conceptualizes command as a governed cognitive enterprise in which computational cognition and human reasoning function as complementary capabilities that enhance planning, adaptability, and decision quality. The framework contributes a scalable, doctrinally compatible model for integrating AI into military planning and command and control, advancing human-AI teaming, adaptive autonomy, and cognitive governance in support of future multidomain operations. Although this article applies SYNTHComm to the MDMP as a representative planning framework, the governance principles advanced herein are intentionally designed to be extensible across joint command-and-control architectures, AI-enabled decision-support systems, and future human-AI operational environments. In this way, SYNTHComm functions as a governance framework for AI-enabled command and control and military decision-making, rather than merely a systematized process for employment of autonomous weapons. We view its primary application to be the allocation and governance of AI-enabled decision support throughout the MDMP, where AI augments planning, intelligence fusion, course-of-action development, operational assessment, and staff decision support, while all the while preserving commander authority. So, although governance principles presented herein may be employed or adapted to inform future autonomous capabilities, SYNTHComm does not assign autonomous lethal decision authority per se, and thus should be understood and regarded as a command governance architecture.