Building artificial intelligence (AI)-tech zones is a complicated matter. An organically grown tech industry would follow a bottom-up approach, but a planned tech zone, a cluster, follows a top-down approach. This chapter will highlight the process of a top-down decision plan to create a productive AI-tech cluster. At the highest level, the fundamental value question to be answered is, “Why create an AI-tech zone?” Based on the analysis of several high-tech clusters and a detailed review of existing empirical research, it is possible to conclude that there are four levels of decisions to be considered for the creation of an AI-tech zone. They are (1) policy-level decisions for agenda setting; (2) management-level decisions that focus on cluster success factors; (3) the impact and control-level decisions, which provide a bounded reliability framework of operation; and (4) the feedback-level decisions that facilitate agile learning. Under policy-level decisions, there are three agenda items for consideration: the relevance of an AI-tech zone (for what purpose?); the scale question (for national consumption, export, or competitiveness); and the sandbox criteria (the safeguards and regulations you plan to put into place to enhance and protect AI usage for good). Under management-level decisions, there are four types of success factors to be considered: the anchor tenants (what type of organizations will create a fertile AI base?); the culture (how will you encourage entrepreneurship?); resources to be invested (what can you leverage and what can you build?); and the knowledge capital plan. The impact and control-level decisions center around the audit and governance processes, to ensure that the objectives of an AI cluster are met. The feedback-level decisions allow for agile learnings, which can be used to inform the first three stages.

The AI Cluster

Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected firms, suppliers, service providers, government and related institutions, and other associated organizations (e.g., universities, trade groups, etc.) (Porter, 1998). They exist as an array of linked industry or fields of specializations that can feed into each other, both horizontally (across organizations) and vertically (up and down the value stream).