Artificial intelligence is shifting global power: geodigital belongs to those who control infrastructure, resources and research.
At a time when artificial intelligence is restructuring markets and value chains, a new form of power is emerging: digital power. The global balance is recomposing around those who control infrastructure, strategic resources and R&D. Driven by AI, power is shifting and digital boundaries are being redrawn. A geodigital era is dawning, where technology becomes the central lever of economic and political influence, and where those who master it redistribute the cards of global power.
Artificial intelligence or the new world order
According to Forrester, in 2026, AI will reach a tipping point: a quarter of planned investments will be postponed until 2027, while less than a third of decision-makers know how to connect the value of AI to the financial growth of their company. End of euphoria: the hype fades, rigor takes over. AI is entering an era of maturity where ambitions must finally produce measurable results.
But behind this market correction lies a much deeper transformation. We are entering the geodigital age of power: a silent but relentless reconfiguration, where power is no longer measured by the size of a GDP or the strength of an army, but by the capacity to control the digital — its resources, its manufacturers and its research.
The global technological center of gravity is slipping. The real levers of power are now found in the control of rare earths, in the control of critical infrastructures – data centers, GPUs, semiconductors – and in the capacity to finance sovereign R&D. Around these axes, a new hierarchy is formed: that of actors capable of building or evolving AI architectures. Neoclouds, specialized start-ups or sovereign AI providers are gradually establishing themselves as counter-powers to the established giants.
A glaring gap between promises and reality
Many AI projects have been sold as revolutions. In fact, integrations are long, team training is expensive, and profitability is uncertain. Result: budgets deferred, pilots stopped and managers required to prove the value of each euro invested.
Added to this is a human and technological obstacle. Forrester anticipates that the time needed to recruit qualified developers will double. Without these skills, ambitions run out of steam. At the same time, cybersecurity must evolve to protect interconnected and vulnerable systems, while quantum security emerges as a costly but vital imperative.
The danger, in this context, would be to get caught up in the surface of things – the announcements, the demos, the promises. The real battle is being played out below the waterline: where the map of global digital power is being redrawn. Because those who control resources, manufacturers and the capacity for innovation now hold the key to economic and technological power.
For Forrester, AI is not a shortcut to growth. It is a strategic lever that redefines markets, transforms value chains and redistributes global balance of power. Understanding this geodigital power means understanding where the next decade will play out: in technological alliances, R&D investments and infrastructure sovereignty. Those who map it today will trace its borders tomorrow.
