TECHNOLOGY – WHERE IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HEADING?

WHERE IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HEADING? SOVEREIGNTY, BUSINESS, AND COMPETITION

The waters are far from calm in the world of technology. Not long ago, just a few years back, when we heard the term artificial intelligence (AI), we thought of assistants that answered our questions, corrected our emails, or wrote poems for us. Now, it has transformed into a massive force that is rewriting the rules of national security, corporate balance sheets, and global competition. Right now, the concept that technology leaders, CEOs, and heads of state are discussing most behind closed doors is clear: “Sovereign AI.” So, where is artificial intelligence headed, and what does this new concept mean for us?

WHAT IS SOVEREIGN AI AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

In the past, we would upload our data to the cloud and not think much about it. But now, data is not just a file to be stored; it has become the most strategic asset upon which countries’ futures are built. Sovereign AI is the capacity of a country or company to produce and manage AI technologies without external dependence, using its own infrastructure, its own data, and its own engineers. Consider this: Would you want your health records in hospitals, your financial data in banks, or the government’s security infrastructure to be processed on servers in a foreign country, subject to their laws? This fear is driving countries to secure their own “digital borders.” However, building everything from scratch would cost billions of dollars. That’s why today’s smart governments and companies are turning to “hybrid” and local solutions that will secure their most critical data, rather than reinventing the entire system.

A NEW ERA FOR THE BUSINESS WORLD: COSTS ARE RISING – FALLING, PROFITABILITY IS ON THE HORIZON

In the business world, artificial intelligence is no longer a “nice-to-have” technology; it has become a matter of corporate survival. The research is striking: a significant percentage of business executives say that artificial intelligence increases company revenues and significantly reduces costs. One of the best examples can be seen in the manufacturing sector. By collaborating with global giants, they have created, are creating, and will continue to create 3D “digital twins” that are exact replicas of their factories. Before physically moving a machine in the real world, artificial intelligence agents test every possible scenario in this digital environment. The result? A large percentage of potential problems are solved before a single nail is hammered into the factory, production speeds up, and massive investment savings are achieved. The bottom line is that artificial intelligence doesn’t just make our work easier; it fundamentally changes how companies operate.

FROM PRODUCTIVITY TO AUTONOMY: ‘AGENTIC’ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AGENTIC AI) AND MAJOR RISKS

The biggest technological breakthrough in the next two years will be “Agentic AI.” We are moving from systems that only provide us with text or images to “agent” systems that plan on our behalf, connect to other software, and complete the job by making decisions on their own. However, giving machines this much authority comes with a potentially frightening price. What happened in a security simulation conducted by an advanced artificial intelligence company is almost like something out of a science fiction movie: The scenarios we read about, specifically involving an autonomous artificial intelligence with access to corporate emails, show that we must establish very strict “governance” when incorporating artificial intelligence into our business processes. If we are delegating decisions to an algorithm, the need to clearly define its limits brings the concepts of awareness and the right strategy to the fore.

THE GLOBAL FUTURE AND TÜRKİYE’S PLACE IN THE ECOSYSTEM

The world is moving towards a duopoly (two-polar monopoly) dominated by the US and China in terms of artificial intelligence, as 90% of the most advanced infrastructure is in the hands of these two giants. So, where does Türkiye stand in this race? Türkiye is taking important steps to avoid being merely a “technology-buying” market. With its “National Artificial Intelligence Strategy” and Development Plans, it has rightly made this issue a matter of state. There are currently over a thousand active artificial intelligence startups in our country, and most of them (70%) were founded or are being founded in the last few years. The fact that companies like Insider have reached billion- dollar (unicorn) valuations proves Türkiye’s talent potential to the whole world. In addition, our efforts to develop sovereign systems that are specific to our language and culture and keep our data within our borders have gained momentum with state-supported “Turkish Large Language Model” projects. However, we face a serious “Scalability Paradox.” Although most of our institutions have grasped the importance of artificial intelligence, they still struggle to integrate these projects into massive corporate structures and use them to their full potential. As an academic who has seen from within large companies that it is imperative to move beyond pilot projects and make artificial intelligence the main engine of companies, I would not be wrong to write this. Artificial intelligence has evolved beyond being merely a “software tool” to become a new-generation power factor enabling companies to survive through efficiency and countries to sit at the table with their digital sovereignty. As we move toward the 2030s, those who own their data, train their own algorithms, and can manage artificial intelligence within ethical boundaries will prevail. We must not remain spectators in this revolution; we must get on the field and be one of those who shape the game. Otherwise, in the world of the future, we will be forced to read our own story through the code written by others.