Shield AI is a US defense-technology company that develops AI autonomy software and AI-piloted aircraft for military use. Its core product is Hivemind, an autonomy stack intended to let aircraft and other systems operate without GPS, communications, or a human pilot, applied to platforms including the V-BAT vertical-takeoff drone. The company was co-founded in 2015 by brothers Ryan Tseng (CEO) and Brandon Tseng (president), the latter a former Navy SEAL, and sits in the Department of Defense vendor ecosystem alongside the broader push to field autonomous systems and physical AI.
DOD adoption and "early adopter" framing
In an interview reported June 24, 2026, Shield AI president and co-founder Brandon Tseng characterized the Defense Department's AI adoption as uneven across categories. He said the department has rapidly adopted generative AI for workload and decision-support tasks, but remains in an "early adopter" phase when it comes to battlefield autonomy and physical AI — the domain Shield AI builds for (Source: insideaipolicy.com). The distinction tracks a recurring pattern in DOD AI procurement: generative-AI tools for back-office and analytic work have diffused faster than autonomous physical systems, which face higher reliability, doctrine, and policy hurdles, including the autonomous-weapons constraints at issue in the Anthropic–Pentagon dispute and the sub-unified command for autonomous drone warfare the Pentagon moved to establish in 2026 (see DOD — Department of Defense (AI Deployer)).
Relationships
- deploys-in: DOD — Department of Defense (AI Deployer)
- related: Autonomous Weapons, Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), Agentic AI