VICENZA, Italy - In an age where information moves at the speed of a click, the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) public affairs directorate is experimenting with a new approach to maintain the initiative at the speed of relevance in the information environment.

The directorate is building a faster, data-driven system by operationalizing Palantir's Maven Smart System and integrating a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Commonly referred to as "Maven;" this platform uses machine learning and data fusion to synchronize information from external sources to enhance decision-making and situational awareness.

This AI-powered analysis platform provides the command with near real-time alerts, allowing the public affairs office to proactively shape the narrative and counter disinformation across Europe and Africa.

This initiative is a deliberate effort to move beyond manual, time-intensive processes that risk losing the initiative to adversaries. The directorate's vision is a tested suite of AI-powered tools that fuses live data with automated production to provide SETAF-AF with a decisive information advantage, allowing the command to communicate with speed and accuracy.

This effort is grounded in a disciplined, phased approach focused on research, testing and implementation.

A key component of the testing phase is weekly wargaming scenarios where the public affairs directorate refines its Maven common operating picture (COP) under simulated pressure. These battle drills allow public affairs personnel to test, break and improve their systems, ensuring the platform is fully mission-ready for major exercises and real-world operations.

"Our goal is to greatly enhance the speed of informing our audience while not sacrificing accuracy," said U.S. Army Col. Alex Tignor, the SETAF-AF public affairs director. "By empowering our team to experiment with tools like Maven in disciplined, wargaming scenarios every week, we aren't just adopting innovation, we're operationalizing it to provide the command with information dominance in an increasing, crowded information space."

The directorate prepared to validate its public affairs Maven COP during SETAF-AF's Lion Deployment Readiness Exercise in November 2025, applying lessons learned for better preparation in future large-scale exercises like Judicious Response 26, African Lion 26 and Justified Accord 26.

This transformation is not happening in a vacuum. Collaboration is the engine driving this innovation forward, uniting the public affairs directorate across the SETAF-AF headquarters, subordinate units and the wider U.S. Army.

Within SETAF-AF, the directorate works closely with G39 information operations, the operational research and system analysis office and the headquarters' Maven team to synchronize efforts, resource tools and build a sustainable, user-friendly system.

For instance, the public affairs directorate and the information operations team continue to synchronize efforts to build a shared understanding of the information landscape.

"True synchronization isn't just deconflicting," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Kevin Ong, the influence branch chief. "It's about building a shared, high-fidelity picture of the information environment. Coordinating with public affairs on Maven allows both our teams to deconflict tools and synchronize effects."

SETAF-AF's public affairs directorate also continues to vertically nest its Maven COP with U.S. Army Europe and Africa's public affairs guidance and works closely with U.S. Africa Command. This effort ensures SETAF-AF's experimentation is aligned with its higher headquarters to provide a cohesive COP and increase responsiveness.

This collaboration also includes SETAF-AF's subordinate units, turning shared experimentation into tangible results. For example, insights from the 173rd Airborne Brigade were key to integrating new tools into the Maven COP.

This partnership led to the fusion of Dataminr First Alert, a platform that provides real-time news alerts, directly into Maven. The directorate can now visualize high-impact events with AI-powered summaries tailored directly to the command's area of responsibility.

SETAF-AF public affairs also extends its collaborative reach across the U.S. Army, working with partners like the XVIII Airborne Corps and the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL).

"In today's Army, we can't afford to have pockets of innovation," said U.S. Army Capt. Amy Petrocelli, commander of the 49th Public Affairs Detachment.

Petrocelli brings firsthand experience from her time at the XVIII Airborne Corps during Hurricane Helene in 2024. In that crisis, the corps' public affairs office used Maven to visualize social media sentiment from an AI-powered platform, Sprinklr, providing the corps' command with critical insights within minutes.

"Sharing our real-world lessons from using Maven and Sprinklr ensures that organizations like SETAF-AF don't have to start from scratch," Petrocelli said. "This collaboration is how we build a smarter, more agile public affairs force."

The directorate's partnership with CALL operates on the same principle of mutual benefit. The SETAF-AF team enhances CALL's "Quick-Fire" AI agent, a tool designed to summarize doctrine, white papers and lessons learned, by contributing public affairs resources. In return, CALL provided more than 35 after-action reports and other documents to help train SETAF-AF's own AI models on the Maven platform.

By experimenting with new concepts and integrating emerging technologies, SETAF-AF is driving Army transformation forward. The public affairs directorate is not just keeping pace, it is setting the standard for the U.S. Army public affairs community, ensuring its communicators remain agile, adaptive, and ready for the challenges of tomorrow.

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About SETAF-AF

U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) prepares Army forces, executes crisis response, enables strategic competition and strengthens partners to achieve U.S. Army Europe and Africa and U.S. Africa Command campaign objectives.

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