AI in Defence: From Theory to Operational Reality

Our CTO, Georgios Gkekas, participated in the panel “AI-Driven Civil Protection and Defence” alongside Yiannis Kefalogiannis, Minister for Climate Crisis & Civil Protection, Pantelis Tzortzakis, CEO of the Hellenic Center for Defence Innovation, with Christos Tarantilis of EY moderating the discussion.

Bringing the perspective of hands-on engineering work in mission-critical systems, Georgios emphasized how AI is rapidly reshaping modern defence capabilities. From intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to cyber defence, logistics, and next-generation command and control, artificial intelligence is becoming the foundation for faster decisions, integrated situational awareness, and greater resilience in complex operational environments.

He also highlighted what is required for companies in this field to scale responsibly. Clear national frameworks, access to real operational data and testing environments, and a consistent long-term strategy are essential to support innovation and technological development within the country.

Finally, the discussion returned to the question of trust. In defence applications, reliability in AI depends not only on technology, but also on doctrine, adversarial evaluation, governance, and maintaining meaningful human oversight in decision making.

As Greece defines its role in the evolving landscape of defence technologies, conversations like this are becoming increasingly important in shaping the future of responsible and operationally reliable AI.