Journal on Baltic Security

We educate tomorrow’s military leaders for operations involving tools we cannot access, doctrine not yet codified, and threats evolving faster than curricula. This article presents empirical findings from systematic exploration of human-AI collaboration in military education involving thirteen Baltic-Nordic defence organisations. Through AI-assisted facilitated workshops, three empirically grounded patterns of human-AI collaboration emerged alongside a command-control distinction derived from practitioner wisdom. The probe-sense-respond methodology enabled pattern discovery where traditional planning approaches fail. Findings offer transferable frameworks for professional military education institutions navigating AI integration while maintaining human primacy in command authority. Regional collaboration achieved what no single institution could accomplish independently.

Professional Military Education faces a fundamental challenge: preparing leaders to collaborate effectively with AI capabilities that evolve faster than curriculum cycles, in operational contexts still being defined, against adversaries who conceptualise AI through different strategic logics. This editorial introduction frames the Journal on Baltic Security special issue on Artificial Intelligence in Professional Military Education, presenting a distinction between command functions (requiring human judgment) and control functions (amenable to AI augmentation) that emerged from collaborative exploration among Baltic-Nordic defence organisations and NATO institutions. Three patterns of effective human-AI collaboration – Strategic Sense-Making, Ethical Responsibility, and Adaptive Command – provide the conceptual thread connecting six diverse contributions spanning adversary paradigm analysis, technology survey, NATO cognitive infrastructure, gender and inclusion, practitioner reflection, and empirical framework development. The introduction identifies implementation gaps requiring continued attention and points toward future collaborative work addressing practical solutions for PME institutions navigating AI integration.