Titolo completo

Intelligenza artificiale e Difesa italiana: sfide e opportunità

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly pervasive in the defence sector, offering opportunities in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, but also posing challenges in terms of security and political-military control. On the one hand, AI can serve as a tool to strengthen deterrence and defence, with its main areas of application including the enhancement of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, the acceleration and increased effectiveness of command and control (C2) systems, as well as improvements in logistics and training. On the other hand, AI is also a powerful tool in the hands of adversaries, acting as a force multiplier across a range of applications, from autonomous systems to large-scale information manipulation campaigns. Looking ahead, AI also constitutes a key enabling technology for the transition towards increasingly automated and more autonomous systems, with far-reaching operational, organisational and ethical implications. This broader transformation therefore calls for a more comprehensive reflection on the level of national ambition regarding the development, acquisition and integration of AI capabilities, as well as on the meaning of technological sovereignty. The adoption of AI in Italian Defence does not merely represent the introduction of a new technology, but rather a structural transformation of the way in which the Armed Forces observe the operational environment, make decisions and conduct operations.

Paper prepared for the closed-door roundtable “Artificial intelligence e difesa italiana. Quo Vadis?”, organised by IAI in Rome on 23 June 2026.