W hen drones first became widespread, their intelligence lived far from their wings—tethered to cloud servers or reliant on ground control. But now, a major shift is underway. Edge AI, the ability for drones to process and act on data in real time directly onboard, is turning drones into autonomous decision-makers in the sky. This is more than a performance upgrade—Edge AI fundamentally changes what drones are capable of, and how industries, governments, and humanitarian effo

I magine a drone hovering silently over a pipeline in the desert. There’s no visible leak. No temperature spike. No audible stress in the...