ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Whitespace today announced the general availability of Iris, an AI agent built to deliver intelligence analysis for military operators and analysts. Authorized Department of War, intelligence community, and allied nation users can now access Iris directly under pilots.
The announcement follows years of development in close partnership with operators and analysts across U.S. and allied military and intelligence communities, during which Iris supported seven combatant commands and delivered more than 1,000 operational planning products.
Whitespace, a team of former intelligence professionals, veterans, and technologists, designed Iris from the ground up to address a structural gap in how intelligence reaches the warfighter: the demand for timely, accurate intelligence has long outpaced the capacity of even the most capable analyst workforce, leaving operators to make consequential decisions with incomplete information.
Iris is built on two integrated layers. The first is a suite of deterministic models developed, tested, and validated by Whitespace’s intel analysis experts — activity-based intelligence (ABI) tradecraft translated into production-grade software. These models ingest mission-specific raw data and enable Iris to find hidden relationships across space and time, mirroring how experienced analysts approach the problem. The second is an agentic system that sits on top, sequencing the tradecraft and turning its outputs into something an operator can read and act on.
The architecture is a deliberate departure from off-the-shelf AI tools, which are designed for general use and not for the specific demands of operational environments. Iris does not hallucinate answers, does not draw from unvetted open sources, and does not introduce the kind of probabilistic errors that are acceptable in consumer applications and unacceptable in no-fail missions.
“We started Whitespace when building defense technology was almost unthinkable for a company like ours. There was no roadmap, no guarantee of capital, no playbook,” said Jackie Barbieri, CEO and founder of Whitespace. “We didn’t do it because it was cool. We did it because it was necessary. More people on our team than not have lived the consequence of intelligence that arrived late, incomplete, or wrong. That’s not an abstraction for us.”
Barbieri continued: “Iris exists because the fog of war is getting foggier — AI, autonomous systems, and misinformation are compounding the complexity of the operational picture — and the demand for intelligence is only going to grow. We spent years building alongside the people who will actually use this, because we would not ship a product that fails the warfighter downrange. Starting today, Iris is ready.”
Whitespace ran its early access program with a deliberate emphasis on operational validity over speed to market. The company’s standard: a minimum viable product that does not work in the field is not a viable product. The 1,000+ operational planning products delivered during the early access period reflect a system that was tested, refined, and validated against real operational requirements across multiple combatant commands before being made broadly available.
Iris is now generally available to authorized Department of War and intelligence community users. To request a demo or pilot, email [email protected].
About Whitespace
Whitespace is an AI company building intel-tech for the warfighter. We are former intelligence analysts and technologists on a mission to ensure information supremacy for America and her allies. Learn more at inthewhitespace.com
Media Contact: Gia DeHart, [email protected]
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/efc068b4-768f-48cd-8f2b-526cd32091a7
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7b505eec-7645-40cf-b110-c8fdf0017896
A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/54debf22-1ad0-47f3-81b0-f513a88b8e1b
