Human-Centered Design (HSI) Considerations for AI and Machine Learning Technologies — a federal contract (USAspending)

AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning (ML, technology that learns patterns from data to make predictions and decisions) are being adopted across organizations of every kind. Yet the focus of this contract, Human Systems Integration (HSI), is not the performance of the technology itself but how people use it. HSI is the engineering discipline of building in, from the start, the human-side factors that shape a design: an operator's perception, judgment, and physical characteristics, along with training, safety, and workload. To examine AI/ML technologies through an HSI lens means approaching adoption from the question of how people and AI divide roles and work together, rather than simply maximizing AI's standalone capability.

This perspective matters because AI/ML outputs are, in many settings, ultimately interpreted, approved, and operated by people, so the design of the interface between humans and the system strongly affects how safe and effective the result is. This is especially true in settings like the Navy, where complex equipment is involved and errors in judgment can carry serious consequences; how AI is presented, how far people should trust it, and where a person should intervene all become essential design considerations. The fact that the Navy is commissioning this study as an external contract itself signals a stance that treats AI adoption not as a technology problem alone but as a human-centered design challenge.

Viewed more broadly, this contract is one example of a shift in attention from "how to build AI" toward "how people use AI." HSI thinking extends well beyond defense to any domain where humans and AI collaborate, including healthcare, transportation, and industrial systems. Tracking, through federal procurement data, how public funds flow toward this kind of human-centered inquiry offers a window into evolving design philosophies for putting AI to use.