The 2026-2030 Artificial Intelligence Vision and Action Plan, announced on June 13, revealed that Türkiye sees artificial intelligence not as a temporary technology topic but as a strategic priority. The plan's core approach was built on awareness, utilization, production, and governance.
Associate Professor Dr. Başar Baysal, a faculty member at the Ankara Social Sciences University Regional Studies Institute, stated that this framework shows Türkiye's intention to move from the awareness stage to the capacity and sovereignty stage in technology policy. According to Baysal, in the age of artificial intelligence, a country's power is measured not only by economic size or military capacity but also by the ability to process data and produce its own model.
A narrow but deep roadmap for Türkiye
Baysal argued that Türkiye should choose a center of gravity in artificial intelligence instead of spreading across all areas simultaneously. According to him, countries that identify the right niche area first deepen there and then transfer that accumulation to other fields.
Explaining this approach with the example of drones in the defense industry, Baysal recalled that Türkiye was able to become a pioneer by focusing on a specific technology field. He stated that the same method could be applied in artificial intelligence research and development efforts.
Baysal emphasized that it is also important for the public sector to be the first buyer of domestic solutions. He said that this model worked in the defense industry and could accelerate domestic developments by creating demand in the field of artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence will be not only a developer field but also a user field
According to the expert assessment, Türkiye's role as a pioneer in one area while being a good user in other sectors does not contradict each other. It highlighted that artificial intelligence transforms business processes, provides efficiency gains, and this transformation spans a wide spectrum from agriculture to bureaucracy.
For this reason, the expert recommendations include increasing general artificial intelligence literacy, guiding sector-based transformations, and especially supporting the private sector, which is predominantly composed of SMEs. Baysal conveyed that the artificial intelligence transformation should be addressed together with green and digital transformation headings.
The security language carries both opportunities and risks
At the summit, it was noted that addressing artificial intelligence with a security and sovereignty language is understandable. According to Baysal, this framework can bring the issue to the forefront of states' agendas, facilitate resource allocation, and accelerate decision processes.
However, it was expressed that the same framework also carries the risk of pushing participation, societal debate, and transparency to the background. Baysal said that in areas such as language model development and standard setting, openness, multi-stakeholder discussion, and collaboration with academia would be decisive.
The assessment emphasized that Türkiye's real test is to transform the vision into a permanent capability. Accordingly, the two paths ahead of the country do not exclude each other: on one hand, being a developer and pioneer in a specific field, and on the other hand, spreading the efficiency gains provided by artificial intelligence to all sectors.
