Seerist: The Tactical Linchpin for Strategic Decision-Making
Use Case: Middle East Conflict
SCROLL DOWN FOR TIMELINE
Amid escalating Middle East tensions, the world woke up on Saturday, February 28, 2026 to US and Israeli airstrikes across Iran. It was the opening moment of a new stage of global geopolitical risk with effects that continue reverberating around the world.
In a fast-moving situation with cascading global implications, enterprises needed timely and actionable risk intelligence. The safety and resilience of their employees, assets, and operations depended on it.
Seerist Essentials users had streamlined access to forward-looking analysis, strategic risk ratings, and event intelligence verified by Seerist's analyst team. They were well positioned to track the security, geopolitical, and economic implications of the emerging crisis.
Users of Seerist, however, layered tactical intelligence and strategic context across their workflows with all of the platform's AI- and analyst-verified intelligence feeds. Independently and with the help of dedicated Customer Support Managers supporting them through the weekend, they gained trustworthy foresight when minutes mattered, tracked developing incidents in real-time, contextualized their impact, and shared critical insights enterprise-wide.
The end result: full situational awareness, enhanced crisis response, near real-time risk assessments, and more resilient enterprises prepared to navigate a new geopolitical reality.
Here's how it worked.
Strategic insights from Seerist Essentials
Tactical insights and products from Seerist + Strategic insights from Seerist Essentials
TIMELINE
The month leading up: from increasing tensions to likely military action
Seerist Essentials users watching the crisis tracked the US navy buildup, including the attempt at negotiations and the February 3 drone incident, and were able to read expert analysis from Control Risks' with mounting confidence in one thing: military action was coming.
They had weeks of strategic foresight on the likelihood and potential timing of military action, enabling them to brief senior stakeholders on time-sensitive options to prepare and respond for their regional employees, assets, and operations at risk.
February 17, 2026
February 3, 2026
SEERIST
Tactical situational awareness of rapidly emerging flashpoints, and ready-made briefings
On February 3, Seerist's AI-powered event detection, followed within minutes with a confirmed alert from Seerist's Intelligence Team, detected a surge of activity within minutes of an Iranian drone shot down over the Gulf of Oman by a US aircraft, giving users real-time visibility on a flashpoint with potentially grave regional repercussions.
Instead of scrolling through noisy public sources to put together a SitRep, users obtained—with a single click—a comprehensive, trustworthy product to share to senior stakeholders desperate for further context, which allowed them to prioritize next steps.
At every moment in the run-up to conflict, Seerist's fused intelligence ensured users had simple, intuitive workflows for discovering critical events, understanding their impact, and collaborating effectively across globally distributed teams.
"Second carrier strike group deployment indication of US plans to strike Iran in March" (link)
9:15 UTC
SEERIST
The day before: dynamic stability scores contextualized on strategic analysis
Beyond strategic insights, Seerist users tracked equally noteworthy tactical indicators in Iran's PulseAI dynamic stability score.
The day before, Iran's score dropped to 44.0 (out of 100), from 45.4, having consistently trended down for weeks due to conflict and unrest factors. From that decline, other decreases in the previous 30 days, and the Control Risks' analysis, Seerist users were just waiting for when it would happen.
With one click, Seerist users slashed their Time-to-Decision with a dynamically refreshing and auto-generated AI SitRep that broke down the emerging crisis into a structured intelligence product. The comprehensive focus on citing its findings allowed users to act confidently on transparently sourced insights.
February 28, 2026
06:13 UTC
Launch of Operation Epic Fury
SEERIST
AI-powered event detection for real-time visibility Within ten minutes of the operation's launch, Seerist's EventsAI model picked up initial reporting on explosions being heard across Tehran. As further information was autonomously scraped and assessed amid the expanding information ecosystem, users had real-time and geolocated situational awareness of on-the-ground developments.
Throughout the day, EventsAI identified 10,000+ news articles and social media posts from high-reliability sources, transforming their contents and metadata into distillable, actionable insights fit to your workflow, whether on a map, a date-filtered chronological timeline, as trend measurement, or as watchlists of saved searches for the GSOC.
Seerist Essentials users in the late days of February 2026 had invaluable access to analyst-verified alerts, expert analysis from Control Risks, and instant reports that kept them apprised of the strategic, big picture developments in a fast-moving situation.
With Seerist, users benefitted from the strategic insights of Essentials as well as tactical, minute-in minute-out intelligence collection, assessment, and deliverable production enabled by our AI engine.
During those days of crisis, no matter the detected incident, the intelligence need, or the briefing you needed to give, Seerist gave you rapid situational awareness and deeper context you could act confidently on.
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Also included in Seerist
18:05 UTC
Event confirmation from Seerist's Intelligence Team at 18:05 UTC (link)
18:35 UTC
AI SitRep generated at 18:35 UTC
Sample AI-Detected Events, incorporated in AI SitRep
17:08 UTC
18:01 UTC
18:20 UTC
Also included in Seerist
February 20, 2026
(Link to analysis)
Also included in Seerist
February 26, 2026
"Big Picture series: Three scenarios for the evolution of US-Iran relations"
Conflict scenarios and Country Reports for strategic risk assessments As Essentials users began what would be their final, pre-conflict briefing cycle, they had invaluable foresight from Control Risks' scenario updates. In no uncertain terms, they had context of the potential risk scenarios, including the most likely one: "rapid escalation into a broader regional confrontation."
For briefing from authoritative source material, all they had to do was download a country backgrounder capturing the top risk elements for Iran, including scenarios, Risk Ratings, recent events, and more.
(link)
06:22 UTC
EventsAI Heatmap of the day's events
GSOC watchlists of EventsAI searches and PulseAI scores
EventsAI Category Pie Chart of the day's events
Explore Timeline Measuring EventsAI articles on February 28
06:31 UTC
SEERIST Analyst-verified alerts for real-time event detection A minute after Israel's announcement, and twenty minutes after explosions were first recorded in Tehran, Seerist users received analyst confirmation of the ongoing operation that added a layer of real-time trustworthiness to the rapidly escalating situation.
Whether in the GSOC, commuting to work, or waking up to urgent messages and emails on a phone, Seerist users—with desktop and mobile app access—got the critical intelligence they needed wherever they were.
By 09:00 UTC
SEERIST From streamlined detection, to deep context, and reliable briefing materials in seconds As the news of the strikes and follow-up actions around the region mushroomed, Seerist users had DiscoverAI to make sense of the developing crisis and keep stakeholders informed as part of a single, intuitive workflow.
Tactical incidents detected from high-reliability sources in the early hours—whether entirely new events or ongoing, accelerating ones—automatically appeared in platform, like the headlines of a personalized risk intelligence bulletin.
From a simple interaction with any piece of content from DiscoverAI, users went from detecting enterprise-critical events to generating real intelligence products fit to their stakeholder. Whether an AI Summary for quick awareness or an AI SitRep for looking at next steps, users had instant, trustworthy, and structured insights they could share up the chain, offloading time-consuming initial risk assessments to so they could prioritize crisis response actions.
By 10:36 UTC
SEERIST Follow-on situational awareness and verified risk intelligence for tactical response The Intelligence Team continued sending confirmed risk intelligence updates in real-time throughout the morning.
To support overwhelmed enterprises in crisis mode, with employees across the region sheltering in place, assets under threat, and operations thrown into jeopardy, Seerist alerted users to each material change that could impact them with validated, precise, and geolocated intelligence. Additionally, Seerist's Customer Success Team was online and ready to support enterprises to exploit these alerts and more over the weekend.
For example, the Intelligence Team sent Seerist users 12 tactical updates within the first four hours confirming Iranian retaliatory action and consequent airspace closures across the region.
Analyst-verified alerts sent by 10:36 UTC
10:35 UTC: Multiple loud explosions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
10:00 UTC: Iranian missiles target US-operated Ali Al Salem Air Base near Al Jahra city, Kuwait
09:46 UTC: Shelter-in-Place issued for all personnel at US Embassy in Abu Dhabi and US Consulate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
09:38 UTC: UPDATE One person killed in Abu Dhabi due to falling missile debris following wave of Iranian missile strikes
08:53 UTC: Shelter-in-Place issued for all personnel at US Embassy in Amman, Jordan
08:34 UTC: UPDATE Explosions and smoke reported in Juffair, Bahrain area as missiles target US Navy base
08:08 UTC: Kuwait suspends all flights to Iran
07:37 UTC: Airspace closure in Iraq
07:25 UTC: Airspace closure and severe network disruptions across Iran
07:11 UTC: Patriot air defence system intercepts Iranian missile over Qatar
06:47 UTC: Sirens sounding across northern Israel as wave of dozens of retliatory missiles launched from Iran
Also included in Seerist
By 22:00 UTC
"Evacuation level for Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE raised from PREPARATION to STANDBY"
Expert qualitative analysis published by Control Risks for what comes next Within two hours of the initial strikes, Control Risks Global Risk Analysis team published the first of what would be 12 analyses that day and more than 40 over the next three days. Both inside the conflict theater and in locations and subject matters with geographic—but not risk—distance, Seerist Essentials users had access to proprietary risk rating changes, evacuation warnings, and forward-looking analysis.
Even if they did not have employees, assets, or operations in proximity to Iran and the Middle East, they still had rapid, authoritative guidance on the fast-moving security, geopolitical, and economic implications of the conflict—and how they needed to mitigate risk in a new, uncertain phase.
(link)
"Co-ordinated, large-scale US-Israeli air strikes on Iran suggest multi-day campaign; broad Iranian retaliation likely"
(link)
Sample analyses from inside the conflict theater
Also included in Seerist
By March 2
Sample analyses from outside the conflict theater
By 10:00 UTC
SEERIST Plummeting stability scores for Iran and the greater region for dynamic situational awareness In the early hours, Seerist users went beyond feeds of tactical alerts to across-the-board context of the regional situation with dynamic stability scores from PulseAI.
Within a few hours, Iran's stability dropped 8.4 points, more than 25% of its pre-crisis score
Unsurprisingly, it was not just Iran whose stability was being negatively impacted. A dozen countries across the region, some more than others, were showing the signs of deepening instability.
As a result, whether as a quick snapshot or the spur of a deeper investigation, Seerist users had hard data—not just alerts in a vacuum—to quantify the escalating risk.
Iran Stability Score (8.4 point drop)
MENA Stability Scores (all dropping)
Pulse AI Stability Scores at 10:00 UTC
Also included in Seerist
Sample Maritime Alert from 18:16 UTC March 1
Analyst-verified intelligence and context for deeper insights and risk assessments Beyond real-time tactical alerts, Seerist's Intelligence Team verified hundreds of events throughout the first day of conflict from Iran, regional countries, and key waterways. They continue to do so.
These alerts were an authoritative and dynamic archive, updating in real-time, of not only event descriptions and precise geolocations but also critical metadata and supporting details (e.g. target, attack vector, severity, and source). Its presentation matched their workflow, whether for precise searching and visualization, watchlist feeds, or as late-breaking updates to Seerist's Country Pages.
As a result, Seerist Essentials users rapidly visualized analyst-verified risk events across any theater of conflict to keep stakeholders informed of critical updates in line with their intelligence needs. It was not just a feed of events; it was a personalized risk event database.
Analyst-verified "War" Events and Targeted Sectors
SEERIST Fixed expert analysis transformed into situation- specific, targeted answers to your specific risk questions From the first outbreak of conflict to day-in day-out in the current moment, both Seerist and Essentials users leverage AskAnna, our AI Research and Intelligence Concierge, to streamline how they gather intelligence about incidents and topics of concern in and out of the conflict theater, validate internal insights, and prepare actionable products for wider distribution.
With a prompt, a click, and a few seconds to generate, each question they asked about the conflict—in their own natural language—returned a structured, transparent answers matching their intent, grounded solely on the dynamic analyses and recent historical archive of Control Risks' analysis.
Whether their need was insights for crisis response, managing travel risk, understanding supply chain flows, or more, they obtained targeted, situation-specific answers ready to share immediately with senior stakeholders.
"What is the Iranian threat to supply chain alternatives to the Straits of Hormuz?"
Example intelligence products generated by AskAnna
"What is the outlook on US-Iran ceasefire negotiations?"
"What are the top supply chain risks in the Eastern Mediterranean during the current US-Israel-Iran conflict?"
