In this episode of “Intel at the Edge”, Chip Usher sits down with Ansel Stein, Vice President of Operations at Crisis24 and a former CIA analyst, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way private-sector companies access intelligence analysis. Stein discusses how Crisis24 is delivering AI-generated intelligence directly to corporate C-suites — from geopolitical risk to tailored daily briefings built on a company's own institutional knowledge. The conversation digs into the tradecraft behind the tools: how intelligence community standards are codified into AI systems, how human oversight fits into an AI-driven analytic process, and how self-improving models are changing the relationship between analysts and decision-makers. Ansel and Chip also look ahead to how this "intelligence-as-a-service" model might eventually influence government intelligence organizations, and why deep organizational context and culture will remain a human differentiator even as raw intelligence becomes cheaper and more democratized through AI.
In this episode of “Intel at the Edge”, Chip Usher sits down with Ansel Stein, Vice President of Operations at Crisis24 and a former CIA analyst, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way private-sector companies access intelligence analysis.
Stein discusses how Crisis24 is delivering AI-generated intelligence directly to corporate C-suites — from geopolitical risk to tailored daily briefings built on a company's own institutional knowledge. The conversation digs into the tradecraft behind the tools: how intelligence community standards are codified into AI systems, how human oversight fits into an AI-driven analytic process, and how self-improving models are changing the relationship between analysts and decision-makers.
Ansel and Chip also look ahead to how this "intelligence-as-a-service" model might eventually influence government intelligence organizations, and why deep organizational context and culture will remain a human differentiator even as raw intelligence becomes cheaper and more democratized through AI.
0:00 – Introduction
0:46 – Welcome, Ansel Stein
1:12 – Ansel's path from government to Crisis24
2:32 – Why join a company at the intersection of intel and AI
3:48 – What Crisis24 delivers
6:39 – Serving private-sector clients
6:56 – Tailoring intelligence for corporate use
8:46 – Intelligence-as-a-service for the C-suite
10:13 – How AI-generated analysis works
10:40 – Where's the human in the loop?
12:14 – The National Intelligence Priorities Framework
15:23 – Intelligence Community Directives and analytic standards
16:13 – Codifying tradecraft into AI systems
17:44 – Real-world example: a global executive's daily briefing
18:28 – Building in company-specific expertise
19:43 – Trust and adoption among clients
22:11 – Self-improving AI systems
24:27 – Speed, scale, and organizational accountability
26:15 – Correcting AI mistakes and shifting analytic lines
26:42 – Data ownership and client control
29:26 – Educating companies on the value of intelligence
29:54 – Structuring human-AI analytic teams
33:13 – Will government adopt this next?
35:07 – Where the industry is headed
36:57 – Early movers and the future of decision-making
38:39 – Why organizational culture still matters
39:15 – Closing thoughts