The Army hires a lot of people who will have access to sensitive and potentially lethal information and hardware and who, therefore, need security clearance. This involves a thorough background check for each soldier, a process which, even with all the resources and experience that the investigators have, can take days or even weeks to complete.

In 2002, the Army started to use intelligent agents to automate the data gathering. The intelligent agent searches through electronic records collecting information. It places all this information in an electronic file and then inspects the contents looking for anything that looks suspicious or might be a precursor to later problems. Such warning signs would be arrests, financial problems, or anything else that could indicate personal weakness exploitable by unauthorized interested parties.

The effects of this electronic investigator have been dramatic. The Army Central Clearance Facility in Fort Meade, MD, can now process a background check in 24 hours, has cleared some of its year-long backlog, and can handle almost one-third more checks per year.