Unstructured Awarded $2M AFWERX TACFI to Advance Multimodal Data Pipelines and Test & Evaluation Frameworks for Generative AI

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Unstructured announced today it has been awarded a $2 million Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract by AFWERX in partnership with the U.S. Air Force Test Center’s (AFTC) 96th Test Wing. Building on prior Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II work, the award will deliver advanced multimodal data pipelines that power generative AI-enabled testing tools and establish test and evaluation frameworks that strengthen trust in AI applications across the Air Force.

AFTC generates massive volumes of highly technical data through test plans, collection, and reporting. Much of this information is locked in complex formats such as charts, diagrams, schematics, images, audio, video, and telemetry—formats that today’s generative AI tools cannot easily access. As a result, analyzing this data remains time-consuming and resource-intensive, slowing the Air Force’s ability to test and field next-generation systems. At the same time, while many generative AI tools are being introduced across the force, there is still a major gap in the ability to rigorously test and evaluate their performance.

Through this TACFI, Unstructured will extend AFTC’s multimodal data pipelines, giving Airmen the ability to apply generative AI across their full range of test data, no matter the modality. This will allow them to query, analyze, and interact with information directly through generative AI-powered assistants, rather than relying on manual review. By intelligently automating how data is ingested, transformed, and routed across multimodal pipelines, Unstructured minimizes wasted compute, eliminates duplicate processing, and optimizes storage utilization. For the Air Force, this means faster access to test data at significantly lower sustainment cost, freeing resources for mission priorities. In parallel, Unstructured will collaborate with AFTC to develop test and evaluation frameworks that measure the accuracy, speed, and reliability of these tools. These efforts will accelerate test cycles, reduce redundant analysis, and establish the foundations needed to evaluate and adopt GenAI solutions across Air Force test and evaluation missions.

“These capabilities will allow Airmen to engage with vast amounts of technical data in seconds—data that previously required weeks or months to analyze,” said Brian Raymond, CEO of Unstructured. “By advancing multimodal data pipelines and building rigorous evaluation frameworks, we are helping the Air Force accelerate test cycles, improve confidence in AI systems, and deliver mission-critical capabilities to the warfighter faster.”

This TACFI represents a critical step toward enabling the Air Force and broader DoW to operationalize advanced LLM-based tools at scale. By integrating multimodal data pipelines with test and evaluation frameworks, AFTC and Unstructured aim to strengthen the Joint Force’s ability to analyze, evaluate, and field complex systems more efficiently and effectively.

About Unstructured

Unstructured is a leader in enabling scalable, mission-ready generative AI applications. The company provides advanced data preparation and orchestration solutions for multimodal data, creating a robust, AI-ready data layer that automates costly, time-consuming data engineering processes. Designed with MOSA and open standards, Unstructured avoids vendor lock-in and delivers the generative AI-ready data layer required for the agentic future.

To learn more, visit https://unstructured.io/government.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of War, or the U.S. government.

About AFRL

The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces. With a workforce spanning across nine technology areas and 40 other operations around the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit: afresearchlab.com.

About AFWERX

As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. Headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, AFWERX employs military, civilian and contractor personnel executing an annual $1.4 billion annual budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has awarded over 10,400 contracts worth more than $7.24 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: afwerx.com.