While catching up with my magazine subscriptions this past weekend, a couple of articles caught my interest. One was the cover story of the TIME magazine. It was about how AI and data science are helping Ukraine fight against an armed forces that is much larger than itself. Another article was in Fortune magazine and focused on how the importance of AI has become a central discussion in the corridors of power. If you have a paper or digital subscription for these two magazines, check these articles out.

I have written extensively about AI being the focal point of the perceived power of nations. In fact, the war in Ukraine brings many of those postulations to the forefront. For example, consider the utility of attack helicopters in the era of AI-powered drones. Nations that have invested billions in developing manned attack helicopters are now loaded with assets that will be almost non-relevant within the next decade.

But this is not going to happen only in the defense sector. In my article, When AI Networks of Nations Will Compete With Each Other, I highlighted the importance of building centralized “National AI” networks. This capability, when developed, will rapidly make many other investments obsolete as well. Nations that plan to take this route therefore need to think about their major investments during the coming decade from the lens of future AI advancements.

However, a key critical factor to keep in mind is that these algorithms, to be effective, have to be layered on top of an enterprise platform. Starting from early 2019, I have postulated that enterprise platforms that allow ease of building additional capabilities through a plug-and-play approach are going to be the future. Fortunately, we now see these platforms coming into play. And one thinking about the “One Nation, One AI” strategy, these foundational platforms need to be kept in perspective. And this aligns with the idea of thinking about future investments from the lens of the “current state of the future”.

There are two sides to it. Enterprise platform companies that offer these plug-and-play capabilities need to envision this as well. This will be a big win if you can build and showcase a platform that allows building this “One Nation, One AI” capability on top of this foundational platform. After all, the differentiating aspect in today’s age of cut-throat competition in technology offerings is to help customers understand the unique capabilities they can build and also help them build those capabilities.

This is going to be a massive opportunity in the next ten years. And from both perspectives, solution providers as well as countries looking to build this capability, the work needs to start now !