Shield AI partners with Korea Aerospace Industries to advance AI-powered autonomy with Hivemind Enterprise

SAN DIEGO, March 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Shield AI, the deep-tech company building state-of-the-art AI-powered autonomy software products and defense aircraft, today announced a partnership with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to accelerate development of AI pilots, a core technology for KAI's manned/unmanned teaming capabilities by utilizing Shield AI's AI-powered, modular and scalable autonomy software products.

Brandon Tseng, Shield AI president and co-founder (third from left), with senior Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Shield AI leaders at the IDEX trade show in Abu Dhabi in February 2025. KAI CEO Kang Goo-young (center) and KAI CTO Kim Jihong (second from right) stand among the delegation.

"KAI is pioneering the future of next-generation aerospace, driving advancements in AI-powered autonomy for defense aircraft," said Nathan Michael, Chief Technology Officer at Shield AI. "Developing autonomy is complex and costly, but Hivemind Enterprise eliminates these barriers—supercharging lean teams to build complex autonomy behaviors at rapid pace and production quality, helping them to get to flight in a record time. Hivemind Enterprise has been applied to the F-16, MQ-20, MQM-178, V-BATs and quadcopters. This partnership reflects the growing global demand for intelligent, mission-ready autonomy platform and marks a significant step toward a future where autonomous systems transform air, maritime and ground combat."

Hivemind Enterprise is an autonomy software suite for developers and organizations building, testing, evaluating, and deploying autonomy for intelligent machines. It accelerates autonomy development by delivering a multi-year head start with platform products, AI-powered toolsets, and leveraging Shield AI's proven edge autonomy work enabling unmanned systems to operate in GPS- and comms-denied environments. The Hivemind Enterprise product suite includes an integrated autonomy factory, industrial-grade production ready middleware, a rich autonomy catalog, and seamless mission control, empowering developers to build and own their mission-ready autonomy solutions with unprecedented speed and flexibility.

"KAI will rapidly verify its independently developed AI Pilot technologies through various methods and elevate them to a world-class level," said a KAI official.

Shield AI's exclusive technology partner in Korea, Quantum Aero, will support the integration effort, fostering collaboration between South Korean aerospace companies and advanced AI technologies.