National security is a country’s ability to protect its territory, its people, its institutions and its core interests from threats, whether those threats come from outside the country or from within. As India becomes more connected and more digitised, that task has grown more complex and multifaceted. Military confrontation remains a risk, but it now sits alongside cyberattacks, terrorism, misinformation campaigns, autonomous weapon systems and vulnerable infrastructure.
What links these threats is the amount of data that investigators have to deal with. Whether it is a terror investigation, a financial crime or a cyberattack, the volume of digital information overwhelms investigators. A single seized phone can contain lakhs of messages, photos and location points. One terror case may involve dozens of devices, months of CCTV footage and thousands of bank entries. As a result investigators often spend weeks sorting material before they find the lead that matters. Artificial intelligence offers a way through this overload. Instead of wading through thousands of files, investigators can use AI to flag the few that actually prove the offence.
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Speed is only part of the gain. Until now, extracting and reading digital evidence required specialists. Investigating officers had to learn complex tools, understand file systems or have an expert sitting besides them. AI is now removing that barrier. Officers can now ask the system questions in plain English or in their local language. “Who did this number speak to between 9 pm and midnight on 14 March?” “Show me every photo taken within two kilometres of this location.” “Which of these fifty phones contain the same forwarded video?” “Did any two of these devices connect to the same Wi-Fi network?” None of these queries requires knowledge of protocols or file formats. AI handles the technical work, and officers bring the domain expertise and local knowledge that no software has.
The same ability to sift large volumes of data also strengthens surveillance. AI-powered satellites, drones and sensors can monitor border regions, critical infrastructure and urban areas around the clock. They can pick out unusual activity, detect potential threats and pass actionable intelligence to officers in real time, without the fatigue that limits human watchers.
Beyond watching the present, AI can help anticipate what comes next. By analysing historical data, it can identify the patterns that come before an attack or an outbreak of unrest. Indian intelligence agencies can use it to anticipate terrorist attacks, cyber intrusions or social unrest by studying online communications, social media activity and other digital footprints.
However, the larger concern is outsourcing all work and thinking to AI because that can come with serious consequences. On September 18, 2026, CNN reported that a US special operations analyst had used an AI chatbot to produce an intelligence report claiming a Chinese ship in the Middle East was carrying nuclear weapons components. Military aircraft were already in the air and armed personnel were preparing to board the vessel before officials discovered the report was false. The chatbot had hallucinated. Language models predict likely words based on statistical probability, and they do not check whether what they produce is true. The incident shows why AI should not make final operational assessments. Its proper role is to find, sort, link and translate evidence, while the factual account an officer swears to must be written by the officer.
India’s security future will therefore depend on using AI where it adds speed, scale and clarity, while keeping human officers in control of judgement and narrative. The technology should remain an assistant and never become the author of the case.
The article has been written by Kaushal Bheda, Director, Pelorus Technologies
