Highlighting how fast technology can progress in war we need look no further than Ukraine who are arguably the world leaders in both Drone and autonomous vehicles but are using AI to supplement them in planning and carrying out real time movements on the battlefield.
Now most is still classified material so it will be likely a few years before we see civilian use of this tech however what is known is Ukraine is producing along with partner countries in the EU and Canada enormous amounts of drones for battlefield use. Drones and autonomous vehicles have been instrumental on the front lines and well behind enemy lines and have even pioneered new anti drone drones that actively seek out enemy drones and destroy them and by all accounts the success rate is well over 85%.
Naval drones and semi autonomous naval drones have been used with great success in the Black Sea and considering less than 3 yrs ago naval drones were bulky and easily picked off now they are sleek, fast and maneuverable, can operate autonomously and even a submersible variant has been made.
There are currently around 30 types of drones flying in the skies above the war zone and Russia and some of the long range variants are reported fully autonomous with high success rates.
Autonomous vehicles are being used for resupply, medical evacuation, mine clearing, static defense and several other uses almost all of which was either pioneered or improved upon by Ukrainian R&D and are extremely useful for ground troops.
With that being said most drones on the front lines are human controlled and multiple sources both within Ukrainian ranks and observers realize that the human element has its own issues. It can take up to 10 FPV drones to take out one soldier and up to a dozen drones to take out armoured vehicles, artillery and air defense systems.
Anti drone warfare is a huge thing on the battlefield and currently Ukraine has the decidedly edge on this while Russia has very capable systems they are few and getting fewer.
Finally Ukrainians are training many western militaries on drone capabilities and anti drone warfare with the most public one being the US attack on Iran as the US military found out that they were woefully incapable of stopping drones and losing millions in radars, equipment and aircraft. Prior to Ukrainian assistance in the Middle East the US was stopping roughly 18% of all drones fired at their and allied bases after Ukraine sent special forces to help that went up to over 85% of drone interceptions.
In three years Ukraine has went from drone infancy to the world leader in drone and autonomous vehicle warfare and the west is clambering for their expertise.