Tess Horlings works at the Intelligence and Security group of the Faculty of Military Sciences, Netherlands Defence Academy, and is an external PhD candidate at Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA). At ISGA, she is affiliated with the War, Peace and Justice research group. Her research examines how intelligence and security agencies integrate data science and artificial intelligence into their organizations.

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Tess Horlings works at the Intelligence and Security group of the Faculty of Military Sciences, Netherlands Defence Academy, and is an external PhD candidate at Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA). At ISGA, she is affiliated with the War, Peace and Justice research group. Her research examines how intelligence and security agencies integrate data science and artificial intelligence into their organizations.

Her doctoral research focuses on the organizational, technological, and human conditions that shape this integration. She investigates how intelligence professionals work with new technologies, how organizations develop the capabilities to use them, and how legal requirements and operational demands influence these processes. Her work connects intelligence studies with public administration and sociotechnical perspectives. Her current research includes the integration of AI applications into operational intelligence work. Her doctoral research is supervised by Bas Rietjens (promotor) and Roy Lindelauf (co-promotor).

Her publications include “Dealing with data: coming to grips with the Information Age in Intelligence Studies journals” in Intelligence and National Security, and the co-authored chapter “Battling information overload in military intelligence & security organisations” in Towards a Data-Driven Military. She also co-authored “From Data to Decisions: Proposing a Data Maturity Model for Intelligence Organizations” in Intelligence and Technology: Trends, Challenges, and Choices. Forthcoming is "Data Science Integration as Practice: Micro-Level Dynamics from Intelligence Agencies" in Public Performance and Management Review. 

She holds degrees in Military Strategic Studies from the Netherlands Defence Academy and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Groningen.

Publications