Dr Iifti Zaidi is a Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Strategy at Cranfield University’s School of Defence and Security and Academic Director for Cranfield University’s Strategic Leadership Programme, internationally through the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. Ifti is also the Course Director for the Cranfield University's Defence and Security Programme  (Leadership and Management) as well as the fully online MSc in Leadership and Security. In addition, he teaches on Cranfield University’s Defence Leadership MSc and Cranfield School of Management's Executive MBA Programme. 
Prior to joining Cranfield in 2014, Dr Zaidi was a Research Fellow at Durham University where he worked on the theme ‘Interventions, Occupations and Insurgencies’ from a Leadership and Organisational Development perspective. 
Ifti holds a MSc in Art and Science of War, MSc in Global Security and a PhD in Defence and Security focusing on Leadership and Strategy from the prism of defining and pursuing victory.  He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Academic Practice from the Higher Education Commission, England and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Abstract: AI ushers a revolution in human affairs, challenging paradigms across a wide range of human activity. Using frame-based knowledge representation to support decision making is not new and we know that AI can encapsulate aspects of intuitive knowledge behind decision making, draw on vast amounts of data, identify patterns, trends, and correlations to provide analytical outputs. AI is already replacing human agency in many walks of life. This research examines the utility of AI for policy and strategy. The central question is, can AI replace human agency, and can AI-powered forecasting models help policymakers predict potential outcomes of events; support scenarios analysis and evaluate the impact of different policy options to produce strategy and plans? I examine AI’s ability to replicate, surpass and replace human creativity, innovation, and intuition in dealing with novelty and in tackling wicked problems and adaptive challenges to produce useable policy and strategy. In terms of context and scope, this paper addresses national security and military strategy. The research finds that while policy and plans have processual and mechanical dimensions to them, competitive strategy require novelty, creativity, and innovation. AI, presently and foreseeable, lacks the element of creativity and intuition which are essential in strategy. In conjunction with human faculty, AI can be applied for testing robustness of policy and model outcomes, war game strategy, as a red-teaming aid, and to eliminating groupthink and other biases.