ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md.—In a sea of cubicles on the fifth floor of the Communications-Electronics Command headquarters building, Frank Frisby readies himself for an afternoon meeting. Frisby’s space is nondescript, a typical corner of the Software Engineering Center’s Technical Services Directorate. There’s heavier than normal traffic throughout his space, but only because his office neighbor, roughly an arm’s length away, offers an impressive spread of candy and snacks. Frisby’s desk is about as normal as an office space can be: barely legible notes on the whiteboard behind him, a notebook next to his keyboard, and a mug with worn lettering from his son that reminds Frisby that he’s a superhero.
As he settles in just before 2 p.m., he stares into the distance. His gaze is toward his monitors, but he is not focused on anything. At the moment, he’s relying more on sound than vision. He listens as his colleague, Scott Tobias, gives introductions for the virtual meeting that will start in a moment. Tobias begins to discuss what Frisby will present over the next hour.
Frisby, a data scientist with CECOM SEC, has given this presentation over a dozen times within the last few months, and over a dozen more are scheduled. For this meeting, Frisby and his team will provide a demonstration to representatives from U.S. Army Futures Command.
A few minutes after the meeting starts, Frisby gets himself set as Tobias finishes his introductions. His right leg, grounded by his foot that is planted like an anchor on the seabed, bounces in place. He rubs his hands together in his final few seconds before pressing the microphone on his screen to unmute himself.
Frisby is at the helm of the CECOM SEC team that is responsible for A.I. Flow, an application built organically within the center that delivers artificial intelligence capabilities to customers throughout the Army.
The core team behind A.I. Flow has been together, working on various projects, for over a year. Under the name AI Avengers, they often compete in AI challenges and competitions.
Ethan Eanes, an information technology specialist with CECOM SEC, is primarily response for retrieval-augmented generation, a process that is critical to the output of large language models.
Maluki Montgomery, a CECOM SEC computer scientist, focuses mainly on infrastructure code to scale the program. Roy Trieu, a computer scientist working on a detail assignment to CECOM SEC, specializes in the front-end code as well as deployment of the software pipeline.
"Every person on this team is instrumental to A.I. Flow," Frisby said. "We all have our roles and responsibilities, but we often work across specialties to get the job done."
Since October 2024, A.I. Flow has matured exponentially. The A.I. Flow team has doubled in size, adding engineers and specialists focused on stakeholder engagement. The user base is larger and more diverse, up from a few dozen to over 600 throughout various Army organizations.
“It’s amazing to see a product where you start with ‘file—new’ and now has the potential to have thousands of users,” Frisby said. “It does feel like a bit of a dream.”
The time is now 2:05 p.m., and Frisby prepares to take over. He shifts his weight in his chair and rubs his chin. He unmutes his microphone, begins sharing his screen, and thanks those on the call for their interest in A.I. Flow.
This demonstration, like most in recent weeks, was scheduled after the team received a request to talk about their product. Leaders in the AI space from across the Army are interested in A.I. Flow and the team behind it.
Frisby is presenting to Army Futures Command, one of the Army’s leaders for innovation and new technology.
Other AI leaders to whom A.I. Flow has been showcased include the office of the United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology; Project Linchpin; and the U.S. Army Program Executive Office—Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors.
These meetings vary in focus; some are more technical, usually involving engineers or specialists who are interested from a professional viewpoint, while others watch the demonstration to consider bringing the platform into their organization.
Jesse Lefever, a business management analyst with PEO IEW&S, has been using the platform in his day-to-day work following a demo provided by the A.I. Flow team.
“I personally have started incorporating the capability but feel I have only begun to scratch the surface of what the tool could provide in the future,” Lefever said. “The advanced capabilities make it a valuable addition to our toolkit.”
Frisby is now a few moments into his presentation. The AFC representatives on the line are seen only as squares in a Microsoft Teams meeting, but the venue is peripheral for him. Frisby’s passion for AI and the product his team has built radiates through every presentation he gives, virtual or in person.
Frisby is uploading sample documents to demonstrate the power of A.I. Flow. Schematics and drawings of a military vehicle pop into his dashboard as he narrates his work. With several documents uploaded, Frisby gives his agent a command.
“Come up with the total cost of parts, total cost of labor, and total time to build,” Frisby says as he types.
The program thinks for a few seconds, sifting through the documents uploaded and processing his request. After about 15 seconds, the A.I. agent produces a response. Given the parameters of this request, the user, in this case Frisby, is given the costs of parts, labor, and a proposed timeline.
With technical support from Microsoft Azure Government OpenAI infrastructure, A.I. Flow can produce content in a few seconds that could take a team of people days or weeks.
CECOM SEC Director Garrett Shoemaker appreciates the impact of what the team has done.
“It’s something we’re very proud of,” Shoemaker said. “We’re able to build AI agents to do specified tasks.”
Shoemaker’s pride in A.I. Flow is especially apparent when discussing CECOM SEC’s partnerships with other agencies. Citing A.I. Flow’s work with the U.S. Army Contracting Command—Aberdeen Proving Ground, he notes the program's success in supporting ACC-APG with military contract writing, a process that is often meticulous and interminable.
“We can provide information to the AI agent, and the agent can produce those documents much quicker than a human can at a very high confidence percentage.” Shoemaker said.
Frisby is nearing the end of his demonstration, and to leave the group with a forward-facing finale, he spotlights a new tool that A.I. Flow offers: Team Flow.
A.I. Flow provides users with their own agents, a tailored, individualized approach for each user that is siloed. However, inclined to offer an experience that maximizes efficiency for entire organizations, A.I. Flow also allows teams to post work in a collaborative space.
For example, a team of software engineers could use Team Flow to support a project that relies on group work. Specifically, if a new teammate onboards the project, they have a searchable repository with the team’s work to get caught up.
As Frisby explains this function to the group, he’s noticeably proud. He executes example searches to demonstrate the tool’s ability.
At the end of his presentation, he asks the group if they have any questions. The squares on his screen representing the people in the meeting begin to light up, virtual hands in the air across the checkerboard of the MS Teams meeting.
Scott Tobias, the CECOM SEC project lead working with the A.I. Flow team to support strategic engagement, understands that a sustainable path forward is key as interest grows in the program.
“The short-term goal over the next month is to finalize the rollout to [CECOM] SEC,” Tobias said, referencing A.I. Flow’s new availability to the entire CECOM SEC workforce.
“I think the goal after that is to continue stabilizing the application, making sure the guardrails are in place for the subscription plan, and then starting to onboard customers.”
Tobias added that throughout this short term, A.I. Flow continues to give demonstrations across the Army.
As the meeting concludes and the team answers any final questions, Frisby is already thinking about how to improve A.I. Flow. He took notes during the meeting, jotting down anything he noticed that might need attention.
Several well-known AI services exist throughout the DOD, and more are on the way. The tricky balance to strike is building something that is secure, reliable, and user-friendly. The reception has been resoundingly positive for the A.I. Flow team following demonstrations and limited pilot programs to other organizations.
CECOM SEC is working to deliver a service that is tailored for each user, cost-effective, and consistently reliable.
“What has me really excited is the possibilities for what others can do,” Frisby said. “When you have a tool like this, it can allow people to really test their boundaries.”
“It supports the Army in transforming over the next few years, and we’re really excited to be a part of that.”
Social Sharing