The world is witnessing two big wars in the past three years, and they have shaped the course of startups in unimaginable ways. These years of warfare have exponentially accelerated technological innovation in AI war, and the years ahead point to a growing global acceptance of drone based and autonomous warfare. The wars in Gaza and the Ukraine Russia conflict have seen the advent of unprecedented technologies, and the pace at which they are acquired and brought into existence speaks volumes about the ongoing AI war where companies race and compete to bring innovation faster than their competitors.
Drone Infested Technology
During war, soldiers and control room operators get creative. They find new ways to use old equipment and demand new technologies as the conflict becomes heated and prolonged. The situation with drone infested technology being widely used in these wars feels like a thousand snipers in the sky. The buzzing robots feel strangely personal for soldiers and opponents alike.
These drones, developed as a direct response to battlefield needs and soldier observations, point to the fact that the next generation of warfare will not be defined by which side possesses the most advanced technology, but by who can integrate, adapt, and counter it the quickest.
Cheap, flexible, and maneuverable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) drones resemble a highly iterative game of cat and mouse. Concealment and cover are imperative in this extremely advanced use of drones. The advancement in electronic warfare suggests that when combined with ISR, the resultant offshoots are cycles of cyber warfare and aggressive information warfare. The final result of such drone technology is a battlefield increasingly dominated by autonomy.
Drone Warfare
For reconnaissance, both Russia and Ukraine have incorporated first person view (FPV) drones into their tactical weaponry to locate enemy tanks and infantry vehicles. FPVs signal these positions to artillery and attack drones to conduct pinpoint strikes, either by dropping a dummy bomb or carrying explosives for a one-way strike mission.
Ukraine’s unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) units use quadrotor drones to drop grenades with precise efficiency into Russian tank hatches. The use of dragon drones, which burn thermite into opponent trenches, has also emerged. Thermite, one of the hottest burning manmade substances, is used to burn the vegetation Russians use for concealment. These drones create fear, and the Russians have adapted by pushing columns of Ukrainian field troops into minefields. Tanks and armored personnel carriers have become trivial traps. Both parties therefore rely on smaller units operating with caution and on foot.
The drone war has also moved to the sea. Ukraine’s use of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) such as the Magura V5 counters the Russian Black Sea fleet. Small enough to avoid radar detection yet capable of carrying 500 to 700 pounds of explosives, these sea drones can significantly damage Russian ships. A major milestone occurred in May 2025 when two Russian SU 30 jets were reportedly downed over Crimea by sea drones, the world’s first shoot down of a fighter aircraft by a maritime drone.
Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) and Aerial Drones
The rise of autonomous and self-driving cars over the past decade has opened the way for innovation in military vehicles. Whether electric cars or self-driving taxis in Dubai, autonomous vehicles that transport personnel or goods are a highly convenient and efficient innovation. Ukraine and Russia have expanded their use of UGVs to clear mines and conduct reconnaissance missions. According to the Khartia Brigade, the world witnessed the first documented machine only ground assault in northeastern Kharkiv, supported entirely by unmanned mine laying vehicles and aerial drones.
Aerial drone units are becoming central to battlefield strategy, pushing both sides to expand recruitment and training programs for new UAS units. This shift demands a skill set entirely different from traditional infantry.
Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS)
The use of AI powered LAWS presents novel risks: unanticipated escalation, poor reliability in unfamiliar environments, and erosion of human oversight. This raises alarms not only about military effectiveness but also about the openness of AI research and findings. The issue cannot be resolved by high level policy alone; regulation must be developed alongside ongoing evaluation of AI models and their technical behavior.
A clear, behavior based definition of AI LAWS should be established to shed light on the risks presented by their adoption.
Directed Energy Weapons
Russia has made significant progress in directed energy weapons, giving Moscow a more cost effective method to counter Ukraine’s inexpensive FPV drones. In response, Ukraine has adopted decentralized communication models that use multiple dispersed radio nodes and trivial radios to reduce detectability and make it harder for Russian forces to track and jam signals.
Innovation and maneuverability do not always equate to high end technological development. In some areas, Russian forces have switched to using donkeys and horses to move troops and deliver supplies, countering the UGVs and AI drones used to track them. Necessity truly is the mother of innovation, and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine exemplify this fact.
Information Warfare
Moscow is widely believed to release misinformation and disinformation aimed at deceiving Ukraine and influencing public sentiment. Kyiv uses facial recognition to identify soldiers and children in their targeting efforts. Russian intelligence used deep fake videos to undermine President Zelensky, including a fabricated video of him surrendering in March 2022.
Ukraine has used AI powered facial recognition to identify over a quarter million Russian soldiers and locate 198 missing children abducted by Russia. They also maintain an online database tracking killed Russian soldiers.
Cyber Warfare
Russia has launched cyberattacks targeting Ukrainian oil and gas companies, the central bank, and the Ministry of Defense websites. These attacks disrupted public trust, as well as access to money and fuel. Russia later shifted focus to government institutions, communication networks, power grids, and media systems.
In retaliation, Ukraine formed an IT Army, a volunteer force of thousands of hackers conducting offensive cyber campaigns against Russian financial systems, state services, and media.
AI Enabled Information Processing
Information processing and decision making are evolving rapidly. Both sides use ISR drones to gather vast amounts of data and exploit it for strategic advantage. AI software analyzes satellite imagery, drone footage, open source data, and ground reports to provide commanders with lists of covert targets.
The growing demand for business intelligence reporting attracts data analysts and data scientists and creates room for startups to build tools that handle and interpret this expanding data landscape.
Data Storage and Decision Support Systems (DSS)
AI enabled DSS used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for targeting Hamas has drastically accelerated data processing. The massive increase in demand for data storage and computing relies on commercial providers and startups to rapidly field new battlefield technology.
Cloud infrastructure remains a major concern. Due to strain on domestic servers, the IDF relied heavily on overseas cloud providers. On Microsoft servers alone, IDF data doubled between March and July 2024, surpassing 13.6 petabytes. This creates enormous opportunities for startups and network providers to support and expand IDF data storage.
High Speed Information Processing
The IDF’s AI DSS system, known as Gospel, aggregates vast intelligence data including texts, photos, satellite imagery, drone footage, and seismic sensors to locate Hamas bases and homes as targets. Previously, human intelligence could identify only 50 targets a year. With DSS, they identify up to 100 targets per day. The speed is unprecedented.
Data analysts, scientists, and insight teams review the information and provide conclusions to the Air Force, Navy, and ground forces through an application known as Pillar of Fire.
Dangers of Overreliance on Technology
The IDF relies heavily on AI to ease operational burdens. But overreliance leads to false positives. The system processes target in just 20 seconds, an impossibly short time for a human to perform ethically grounded analysis.
This creates significant ethical risks in the Israel Palestine conflict, repeatedly highlighted by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and global media outlets. Rigorous testing is needed, and startups should step in to ensure human oversight across all AI driven cycles. AI enabled decision making should be led by senior analysts and validated through human intelligence on the ground.
Startups and the Way Forward
A 219-million-dollar fund now supports startups and small firms that can fill gaps in the AI war for Israel. The ecosystem has already provided 50 percent of Israel’s anti drone technology, critical as the IDF faces growing drone threats from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran. The startup world is moving toward finding innovative solutions to ongoing conflicts in Israel and Ukraine.
The AI war can be a game changer for startups by encouraging early engagement, analysis of defense publications, and awareness of current affairs and modern military tactics. AI war needs manoeuvrability, adaption and innovation.
I provide talent solutions and have a network of developers, data scientists, IT support engineers, and analysts who can be crucial in aiding efforts to win the AI war. Being an engineer, I thrive in environments requiring last hour solutions and train AI engineers and support staff to deliver innovations that endure for decades. Whether through a joint venture, a contractual project, or long term solutions based work, I am available to discuss any opportunity companies may have.