By Anna Volkwine, Army FUZE SBIR|STTR Program

Washington – The 75th Ranger Regiment, the U.S. Army’s premier light infantry unit and a key component of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), operates with unparalleled battlefield performance, requiring Soldiers with a blend of physical and mental strength. However, the Rangers’ traditional recruiting process – manually sifting through hand-written evaluations, digital fitness scores, and subjective recommendations – is time-consuming, inefficient, and leaves room for performance oversights.

Recognizing a critical need to modernize this high-stakes mission, the Army FUZE Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR|STTR) Program invested in Black Cape, an Arlington, Virginia-based small business, to develop Personifi, a decision intelligence platform designed to find the right Soldiers for this demanding Army role. The program’s partnership with USASOC and the 75th Ranger Regiment was foundational to the development of a technology that supports the Rangers’ unique operational needs. 

“The 75th Ranger Regiment embodies the spirit of the warrior ethos, and their recruiting, assessment, and selection process is foundational to their superior performance on the battlefield. Army SBIR funding enhanced Black Cape’s ability to develop the Personifi technology in-stride for the Rangers, proving to be a key to its success and future opportunities to scale across other special operations forces (SOF),” said Dave Whitmire, Black Cape senior commercial advisor. 

As part of the initial Phase I effort, Black Cape worked closely with the 75th Ranger Regiment to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) could address key capability gaps. While the research began with a focus on exploiting intelligence reports, this close collaboration revealed that the underlying AI technology could also solve a more pressing challenge: talent acquisition. This discovery led to the concept of Personifi, a next-generation personnel management tool to automate processes across the Regimental Recruiting Detachment, Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP), and the 75th Ranger Regiment Headquarters.

Building on the successful demonstration in Phase I, the project advanced to a Phase II, where Black Cape received over $1.8 million in Army SBIR funding to mature the Personifi platform. The technology now uses AI to ingest and evaluate vast, unstructured datasets specific to each recruit, synthesizing disparate data into clear, actionable insights. This allows recruiters, leaders, and trainers to instantly identify the most promising candidates and spot potential red flags that standard recruitment processes might miss. 

This efficiency has already saved hundreds of valuable man-hours, allowing experienced Rangers to focus less on administrative tasks and more on training and maintaining the operational readiness of the force. It transforms recruiting, assessment, and selection from a paperchase into data-driven talent management.  

Over the past year, Personifi has assisted in the selection process for Ranger candidates ranging from Staff Sergeant to Major. The technology aggregated and streamlined results from the three-week RASP II at Fort Benning, a rigorous physical and mental course, to provide the selection board with concrete insights into their final decisions. 

“Personifi has taken the application and evaluation input process to a whole new level. The ease of use, delivery of data, and technical support has far surpassed our historical ways of conducting this assessment and selection,” said Master Sergeant Blake Tomasek, Ranger Assessment and Selection Program II Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge.  

Due to the success of the Phase II project, the 75th Ranger Regiment is now working toward its own funding to further enhance the tool for their specific needs, while Black Cape is currently seeking a Second Phase II award to continue developing the technology for other SOF units. With a large-scale Ranger recruiting effort on the horizon, Black Cape and its Army partners will continue advancing Personifi to become the definitive method for Ranger selection. This partnership demonstrates a powerful return on the Army’s SBIR investment, delivering a technology that not only enhances readiness but also has the clear potential to scale across the SOF community. 

About the Army FUZE SBIR|STTR Program 

The Army SBIR|STTR program empowers U.S. small businesses and research institutions to pioneer early-stage technologies with the potential to meet critical Army operational demands. By providing non-dilutive funding, safeguarding intellectual property, and crafting flexible pathways to transition, SBIR|STTR lowers barriers for innovators to create impactful, soldier-focused solutions. As a cornerstone of Army FUZE—the transformative ecosystem aligning private-sector agility with defense priorities—the program accelerates the maturation of emerging technologies into deployable dual-use capabilities. Through FUZE, SBIR|STTR drives economic growth, cultivates cutting-edge innovation, and delivers the battlefield dominance essential to today’s complex security challenges. 

Any references to commercial products or services are not, and shall not be construed as, official Army or DOW endorsements.