Hazel Selected for Air Force SBIR Phase I to Accelerate Proposal Evaluations

(NEW YORK, New York) -- Hazel AI Technologies, Inc. announces it has been selected by AFWERX for a SBIR Phase I contract in the amount of $74,996 focused on using Artificial Intelligence to increase efficiencies in Air Force proposal evaluations. The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and now Hazel AI Technologies, Inc. will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.

“Source selection is slow because it involves fairly assessing immense amounts of data, and no one has built a tool for the evaluators doing that work. Our system locates where a vendor answered a requirement, pulls the supporting text, and puts it in front of the evaluator. The evaluator still makes every rating. What we want to give Air Force boards back are the weeks they spend today searching through PDFs for every bit of relevant data.”

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of War, or the U.S. government.

About Hazel AI Technologies, Inc.

Hazel AI Technologies, Inc. builds artificial intelligence software for government acquisition. Agencies use Hazel to define requirements, conduct market research, draft solicitations, and evaluate vendor responses in a single system. Hazel is in production with state, local, and federal government agencies nationwide. The company launched out of Y Combinator in 2024 and is headquartered in New York, New York. For more information, visit hazelai.com.

About AFRL

The Air Force Research Laboratory is the Department of the Air Force’s primary scientific research and development center and one of six centers within Air Force Materiel Command. AFRL leads the discovery, development and delivery of technologies for air, space and the multidomain. With a workforce spanning seven mission areas at more than 40 locations worldwide, AFRL conducts research ranging from basic science to advanced technology development. For more information, visit afresearchlab.com.

About AFWERX

AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force and a division within the Air Force Research Laboratory, partners with small businesses, startups and nontraditional vendors to address challenges facing Airmen and Guardians. Headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, AFWERX strengthens the defense industrial base by expanding access to innovators, building partnerships and accelerating the transition of critical technologies to operational capability. In fiscal year 2025, AFWERX awarded more than 1,000 contracts totaling $1.37 billion and achieved 438 Phase III transitions valued at $8.1 billion. For more information, visit afwerx.com.