• Assessing vulnerabilities in Australia’s northern approaches and critical infrastructure.
• The proven capacity of AI-enabled capabilities and how to move beyond pilots to integrated, enduring solutions.
• Using autonomous systems to achieve scale, redundancy, and persistent presence without unsustainable cost.Designing human–machine systems where humans remain central but are enabled by AI to act faster and with greater effect.
• Balancing international partnerships with sovereign control over mission-critical systems and decision logic.
• Where Australia should focus—doctrine, procurement, or partnerships—to accelerate real-world AI capability in the next 2–3 years. 

• Capability Development at Pace: How do different sectors balance innovation with procurement, regulation, and integration timelines?

• Operational Interoperability: How can military and civilian agencies ensure autonomous systems work seamlessly across domains and jurisdictions?

• Data, Trust & Decision-Making: How do we manage data flow and decision-making in environments where AI plays a critical operational role?

• Beyond Silos: Aligning Defence, Law Enforcement and Academia in the Robotics Era

• Balance between autonomy and human oversight.
• Ethical and doctrinal implications of semi-autonomous weapon systems.
• Training soldiers to work with intelligent machines.

• Critical Vulnerabilities: Risks in sensors, AI, and hardware for defence systems.
• Global Disruptions: Lessons from COVID, chip shortages, and geopolitical tensions.
• Cross-Sector Alerts: Real-time intelligence for energy, transport, law enforcement, and defence.
• Battlefield Innovation: Trojan drones in Ukraine and the evolving threat to Russian infrastructure
• Resilience & Partnerships: Aligning policy, collaboration, and sovereign control. 

• The ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI in defence and security operations.
• The creation of international and domestic regulatory frameworks to govern the use of AI and autonomous systems in military applications.
• The role of export controls and governance in ensuring responsible AI development.