AI enables almost every sector of modern business. Using AI, businesses boost their productivity at a global scale, and each new iteration appears with lightning speed. Of course, the technology’s ever-expanding potential fuels this revolution, but a few unexpected factors also help its growth. But did you know, for example, about the role of British Anguilla’s .AI domain extension in AI promotion online?
Let’s unpack this issue to understand more about AI, domains, and how the two interact to generate value.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
The Larousse dictionary defines AI as a “set of theories and techniques implemented to create machines capable of simulating human intelligence.” Typically, this “set of theories” focuses on understanding and executing tasks autonomously through machine learning. Machines learn to deploy digital resources and perform repetitive tasks traditionally carried out by humans.
The latest developments, including cutting-edge services like ChatGPT, Anthropic, and Google Bard, grab the attention of businesses and individuals alike. Experts frequently place AI’s significance on par with the internet itself, the printing press, or the discovery of fire. Plenty of praise for AI circulates online, and plenty of concern too. Here, however, we’re exploring its hidden relationship with the Anguillan domain extension, .AI.
Online businesses and the .AI domain extension
Now more than ever, it seems those two vowels, A and I, wield plenty of power online. This value means a great deal to the .AI domain extension. Since 1995, the Caribbean nation of Anguilla owned the .AI extension as a country code top-level domain (ccTLD). Besides luxury tourism, offshore banking, and lobster phishing, the country is also responsible for any new websites ending in .AI.
Before Artificial Intelligence came to dominate screens and headlines, the .AI extension kept a fairly low profile. Events in the last decade or so mean it remains the exclusive domain of Anguillan businesses no longer. As an acronym and a website suffix, AI presents significant opportunities for industries as varied as software, communications, healthcare, banking, fashion, and more.
This extension delivers enough advantages that many digital businesses place it on par with .com at the top of their priority list. For starters, existing companies saturate the market for .com and .org extensions, making it hard to carve out a new niche. Additionally, AI provides intuitive, memorable branding for an innovative marketing online.
Even governments and prestigious institutions welcome .AI into the establishment. The French government recently recognized aivancity.ai, the prestigious School of Artificial Intelligence and Data located in Paris-Cachan (ministerial decree of February 24, 2023), cementing the extension into the heart of the digital metropolis.
Sites like designs.ai and cnr.ai also gain prominence as the .AI domain proliferates in private and public digital spheres.
How hard is it to register a .AI domain?
New registration in the .AI domain extension runs through Anguilla’s Offshore Information Services department. The organization welcomes domain names between 2 and 63 characters, including numbers, to anyone, regardless of residency. However, each registration requires a minimum term of 2 years and considerable paperwork to register, secure, and maintain the domain.
If you’re interested in exploring a .AI domain, or if any other domain queries spring to mind, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the EBRAND experts.
Expert advice
With only 170,000 domains registered so far, AI remains far less saturated than other extensions like .com or .FR. Businesses already recognize this window of opportunity, flooding in with new websites to capitalize on AI online. With emerging start-ups grabbing this digital real estate and existing players registering defensive .AI domains, our intelligence, artificial or not, highlights this extension as an area of interest for any forward-thinking business.
