NATO Allied Command Transformation concluded the 44th Technology for Information, Decision, and Execution Superiority Sprint, or TIDE Sprint, held this week in Istanbul, Türkiye. Hosted at the Multinational Joint Warfare Centre, the event brought together more than 600 participants from NATO, Allied and Partner Nations, industry, and academia across the Alliance.
TIDE Sprint is the NATO Digital Interoperability Forum. It brings together the communities responsible for ensuring NATO and Partner Nations can communicate, cooperate, and operate together through compatible command and control capabilities, information technology services, data, standards, and processes.
As part of ACT’s wider Interoperability Continuum, alongside the TIDE Hackathon and the Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXercise (CWIX), TIDE Sprint provides a setting where ideas, concepts, and specifications can be advanced before being tested, refined, and carried forward into follow-on work.
A New Format Focused on Outputs
TIDE Sprint 2026 marked a deliberate change in format. Previous iterations were organized around multiple thematic tracks covering communications and information systems, digital transformation, innovation, and emerging technologies. This year, the event tested a new construct built around two main Streams: Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence.
The revised format was intended to sharpen focus and better connect discussion to practical outputs. TIDE Sprint 44’s streamlined approach created a forum for NATO, Nations, industry, academia, operators, technical experts, and standards communities to really focus their efforts to work through issues affecting the Alliance’s ability to operate as one.
This new format also attracted a broader community of experts, with more than half of the participants attending TIDE Sprint for the first time. It reinforced the close connection between Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence. NATO’s ability to use AI effectively depends on the data, governance, architecture, and digital foundations created through Digital Transformation. For that reason, several core digital topics appeared across both Streams, viewed through different lenses but linked by the same requirement: ensuring that data can be trusted, accessed, protected, and applied to produce practical, testable outputs that the Alliance can carry forward.
Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence
The Digital Transformation Stream focused on NATO’s efforts to operate more effectively in the digital age. Discussions addressed the data, governance, architecture, infrastructure, and human dimensions required to support multi-domain operations and improve interoperability across NATO and national systems.
The Artificial Intelligence Stream examined how the Alliance can responsibly and effectively harness AI to improve decision-making speed, interoperability, training, wargaming, command and control, and capability delivery. It also considered the enabling conditions required for AI to deliver operational value, including data governance, AI literacy, responsible use, scalable delivery environments, and validation methods.
From Discussion to Follow-Through
Across both Streams, participants brought different but complementary perspectives. Operators helped identify practical use cases and operational friction points. Nations brought implementation realities and policy considerations. NATO bodies and staff connected discussions to existing coordination mechanisms. Technical experts helped translate ideas into concepts, specifications, profiles, and measurable criteria. Industry and academia contributed practical solutions, evidence, and expertise.
The Alliance must be able to operate as one—coherently—in our data, our networks, our processes, and our systems. TIDE Sprint exists to accelerate that outcome. It is a place where we move concepts and specifications forward at pace, so we can strengthen and federate interoperability across Nations and NATO’s Command and Control capabilities and IT services.
– Major General Dominique Luzeaux
Allied Command Transformation Digital Transformation Champion
The outcomes of TIDE Sprint 2026 will inform follow-on work across ACT’s Interoperability Continuum and wider NATO capability development efforts. By focusing this year’s event through the Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence Streams, Allied Command Transformation sought to better connect innovation, technical expertise, and operational requirements to practical steps that can be tested, refined, and scaled.
As the Alliance adapts to a more data-driven, digitally connected, and AI-enabled operating environment, interoperability remains central to NATO’s ability to act with speed, coherence, and confidence.
