Artificial Intelligence is transforming Formula One at an unprecedented pace. But while much of the conversation focuses on individual technologies, our team believes the greatest competitive advantage lies elsewhere: in the strength of the ecosystem that surrounds them. That philosophy was the driving force behind the team's inaugural Technology Forum, held at the AMR Technology Campus ahead of the British Grand Prix.
Bringing together senior leaders from across our AI and technology partner portfolio, the event marked the first major activation of the newly established AMR Network – a platform designed to connect Aston Martin Aramco's world-leading partners to drive collaboration, knowledge sharing, thought leadership and commercial opportunity.
As Formula One continues to push the boundaries of AI, cloud computing and high-performance engineering, the AMR Network reflects a broader belief that innovation happens fastest when expertise is shared. Across three panel discussions, industry leaders explored how AI is reshaping both motorsport and the wider business landscape.
One of the three panels, titled 'Building an AI ecosystem', examined what it really takes to create an environment where technology, data and people work together to accelerate performance. These were the key takeaways.
1 | Integration creates momentum
Opening the discussion, Eric Ernst, Technology Ambassador at Aston Martin Aramco, explained that building an AI ecosystem is about much more than introducing new tools. Real value comes when organisations create an environment where technologies – and the partners behind them – are already connected.
"When you look at solving problems with partners who are already integrated, you gain momentum very quickly," explained Eric.
"You start creating value almost immediately, and then you can accelerate much faster towards the things you want to achieve. Once that momentum is there, and everyone understands how each other works, that's when you really start seeing the gains."
2 | AI is only just getting started
While AI already dominates headlines, Ben Richardson, Head of CoreWeave International, believes the industry is still in its infancy.
"People often ask whether AI is at the peak of the hype cycle," he said.
"I always use a baseball analogy – we're probably only at the top of the second inning. The technology innovations we're seeing, both within the team and across industry, are only just beginning to accelerate."
For CoreWeave, whose cloud infrastructure powers many of the world's leading AI models, success comes down to speed and execution.
"It's not enough to talk about what you're going to do – you have to deliver it.
"Every day we're bringing together enormous amounts of data, processing huge workloads and enabling those models to operate at scale. Formula One does exactly the same thing."
His advice for organisations looking to embrace AI was equally direct.
"The biggest mistake is waiting. Put sensible guardrails in place, but start experimenting. If you sit back waiting for everything to be perfect, your competitors will move ahead."
Just like the components on a Formula One car, individual technologies don't deliver value on their own. It's only when everything works together that performance improves.
3 | The ecosystem matters more than the individual technologies
For David Ingham, Head of Media, Entertainment & Sport at Cognizant, AI only delivers meaningful outcomes when organisations successfully connect every layer of the technology stack.
"We're AI builders. We bring together all the different layers of the AI stack – from chips and cloud infrastructure through to software – and orchestrate them into workflows that create real business value," he explained.
"Just like the components on a Formula One car, individual technologies don't deliver value on their own. It's only when everything works together that performance improves."
The challenge that exists is often less about deploying new AI tools and more about modernising existing environments.
"It's relatively easy to introduce new AI technologies. The difficult part is understanding where your data sits, how it moves across the organisation and how to modernise existing systems."
4 | Turning data into decisions
As organisations continue to generate ever-larger volumes of data, Ryan Lewis, Head of UK & Northern Europe at Cohere, believes the next frontier lies in helping people interact with that information more effectively.
"Whether it's telemetry, diagnostics or simulation data, AI can dramatically reduce the time needed to understand what's happening and support high-stakes decision making," he said.
"Teams generate huge amounts of data that's often stored across multiple systems, formats and even different languages.
"AI can help engineers access that information instantly and turn it into meaningful insights far more quickly.
"We see AI as something that empowers people rather than replaces them. It should remove repetitive, time-consuming tasks so engineers and decision-makers can focus on higher-value work."
The most successful organisations don't wait. They start, improve as they go and use AI itself to identify data gaps and improve quality over time.
5 | Don't wait for perfect data
The discussion closed with one of the biggest barriers organisations place in front of themselves: believing their data has to be perfect before AI can deliver value.
Simon Cox, Chief Transformation Officer at ServiceNow, explained why that's exactly the wrong mindset.
"Today we see many businesses becoming paralysed because they believe they need perfect data before they can begin using AI," he explained.
"The most successful organisations don't wait. They start, improve as they go and use AI itself to identify data gaps and improve quality over time.
"If you don't start, someone else will."
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