10 DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 www.vanguardcanada.com
Ai
Can Make DefenCe
AI
How
By MACIEj K. HRyNIEWICKI AND DEAN V. BRAKNIS
LEANER AND
oVer the past
seVeral decades,
significant inVest-
ment has been made
by goVernments
worldwide in the
adoption of new and
emerging intelligent
technologies within
the defence
industry.
S
tate-of-the-art applications in
autonomous vehicles and ro-
botics, as well as navigation
and guidance systems, have
each leveraged elements of ar-
tificial intelligence (AI), machine learning
and deep learning in an effort to augment
traditional human capabilities in the field.
These technologies have enabled human
workforces to become smarter, faster and
stronger, all while processing increasingly
larger volumes of data that were previously
too vast and time-consuming for humans to
thoroughly analyze on their own.
But have these complex and sophisticated
R&D-based AI efforts overlooked more
tangible, business-oriented opportunities?
Have advanced applications of AI in the
defence industry wandered too far into the
world of science fiction while lagging on
transformation of administrative business
functions, where more direct and immedi-
ate returns on investment (ROI) may ex-
ist? A recent study estimates that AI will
contribute upwards of US$15.7 trillion to
the global economy by 2030, with business
functions including human resources (HR),
finance, supply chain, information manage-
ment and operations – amongst others –
all likely to be disrupted and transformed.
With this long-term potential in mind, this
article aims to outline how organizations
in the defence industry can venture off the
beaten path of AI to responsibly harness
increased operational efficiencies by estab-
lishing data- and AI-driven decision-making
processes with more practical (and relatively
disregarded) business applications.
Ai in practice
Generally speaking, AI is a collective term
for computer systems that have the ability
