Drones-Led Disruption Accelerates as Commercial Adoption Surges Across Industrial Markets

Next-Generation Drone-as-a-Service Platforms Reshape Infrastructure, Energy, and Construction Operations with Rapid Revenue Expansion

Market News Updates News Commentary

NEW YORK, May 21, 2026 /CNW/ -- The Drones-as-a-Service (DaaS) market for commercial and industrial applications is entering a strong growth phase as companies increasingly shift away from owning drone fleets and instead outsource aerial data collection, inspection, and monitoring to service providers. This model is gaining traction across construction, agriculture, energy, mining, logistics, and infrastructure inspection, where drones significantly reduce operating costs, improve safety, and deliver faster, higher-resolution data than traditional surveying methods. The value proposition is especially strong for industrial users, since DaaS eliminates upfront hardware costs and replaces them with flexible, on-demand or subscription-based pricing tied directly to project needs.  Active tech companies in the news this week include:  ZenaTech, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZENA), Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO), Quantum Cyber (NASDAQ: QUCY), Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT), Safe Pro Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SPAI).

From a market perspective, growth projections are accelerating sharply. The global DaaS market is estimated at roughly $6 to $8 billion in the mid-2020s, with forecasts projecting it to reach around $25+ billion over the next decade as adoption scales across enterprise and government users. Broader drone services markets--which include DaaS--are projected to expand even further, with estimates reaching $100+ billion to $200+ billion globally in the 2030s depending on adoption rates and regulatory expansion . This rapid growth is being driven by AI-enabled analytics, autonomous flight systems, and expanding regulatory approval for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, all of which are making drone services more scalable and commercially viable.

Looking ahead, the outlook for commercial and industrial DaaS is defined by recurring revenue models, automation, and data-driven decision-making. Instead of one-time drone usage, enterprises are increasingly relying on continuous monitoring--tracking construction progress, managing infrastructure assets, and performing predictive maintenance through frequent aerial data capture. As AI integration improves, drones are shifting from simple imaging tools to fully autonomous data platforms that generate actionable insights in real time. This evolution positions DaaS as a long-term structural growth market, with strong upside as industries prioritize efficiency, digitization, and lower-cost operational intelligence.

ZenaTech (NASDAQ:ZENA) Signs Offer to Acquire Alberta, Canada-based Land Surveying Company, Expanding Drone as a Service into the Oil and Gas Industry Drone Inspection Market Growing at over 28% Annually -  ZenaTech, Inc. ($ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) ("ZenaTech"), a technology solution provider specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS, and Quantum Computing solutions, announces that it has signed an offer to acquire an Alberta-based land surveying and geomatics company operating across three Western Canadian provinces. The proposed acquisition would mark ZenaTech's first land surveying acquisition in Canada and the first focused on drone-based oil and gas industry services establishing a Drone as a Service presence in a sector growing at over 28% annually.

"This proposed acquisition represents an important strategic expansion of our Drone as a Service business into Canada's oil and gas sector, one of the most significant energy markets in North America," said Shaun Passley, Ph.D., CEO of ZenaTech. "This company brings an established commercial customer base, strong regional expertise, and extensive experience supporting surveying and geomatics projects including for some large producers. We believe there is a significant opportunity to further enhance these services through AI-powered drone technology for surveying, mapping, inspections, and infrastructure monitoring applications, enabling us to establish a core expertise that we can bring to this fast-growing global industry."

The Alberta-based land surveying company provides geospatial land surveying, geomatics, mapping, and related environmental support services for Western Canadian oil and gas producers. Operating from multiple regional offices including the Grande Prairie region, the company supports projects throughout Alberta as well as Eastern British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Its services include surveying, mapping, and pre-site assessment support for commercial infrastructure and energy development projects. The company supports a portfolio of commercial clients in the oil and gas sector, including leading Canadian energy operators and established natural gas producers active across upstream and infrastructure development projects in Western Canada.

Importantly, drones are already deeply integrated into the target acquisition company's operations, with approximately 80% of current projects utilizing drone-based workflows as part of surveying and geospatial data collection. This creates a highly efficient pathway for technology integration and operational scaling. The proposed acquisition aligns with ZenaTech's strategy of acquiring established service businesses with strong customer relationships and integrating advanced drone automation and AI technologies to improve efficiency, precision, and long-term value creation across surveying, mapping, and infrastructure monitoring applications.

The proposed acquisition comes at a time when the global oil and gas drone inspection services market is valued at approximately USD 2.3 billion and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 28.5%, according to market analysts, driven by increasing adoption of autonomous inspection, surveying, and compliance technologies across energy infrastructure.

ZenaTech's Drone as a Service platform provides business and government clients with on-demand or subscription-based access to faster and superior drone-based services for a host of surveying, inspection, maintenance, power washing, inventory management, and precision agriculture services, without the capital costs or operational burdens of ownership. By acquiring established, profitable service companies currently using low-tech processes and ripe for drone innovation, ZenaTech is building a global, multi-service DaaS network of locations in communities anchored by existing customers and revenue, for next-gen drone integration designed for speed, precision, data, and safety benefits. The company is continuing to build its global business and network of locations as well as its integration of drones and new services.   Continued…  Read this full release and additional news for ZENA by visiting:  https://www.zenatech.com/newsroom/

In other Business/Military/UAV/Drone industry recent and current news of note:

Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO), an award-winning, industry-leading developer of drone solutions and systems, announced that, together with F4 Defense International (F4DI), has been selected by DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory for an initial development contract focused on the creation of a modular, multi-layered, integrated counter-unmanned aircraft system ("C-UAS") platform designed to detect, identify, track, target, and defeat hostile drones in contested operational environments.

The program centers on the development of an ultra-mobile, rapidly deployable counter-drone solution integrating Draganfly's advanced tethered aerial platform technology with identification, targeting, and defeat system architectures. The solution is designed to provide persistent aerial overwatch, enhanced situational awareness, and coordinated airborne and ground-based drone mitigation capabilities.

Quantum Cyber N.V. (NASDAQ: QUCY), a Nasdaq-listed autonomous defense technology company assembling an AI-powered System-of-Systems platform, announced the filing of a provisional patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its SCOUT-AX6 GUARDIAN: a quantum-navigated, amphibious, remote-controlled autonomous ground vehicle designed for multi-domain defense operations across land and water in GPS-denied environments.

The provisional application, docket number QDI-2026-QDAS-001, was filed in May 2026. The sole inventor is Jacob Gitman, with Quantum Drone Inc. named as assignee. The Company has 12 months from the filing date to file a corresponding non-provisional application to establish full patent rights.

Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT), a U.S.-based provider of advanced all-domain drone and robotic solutions for defense and national security, announced it has acquired Quaze Technologies Inc. ("Quaze"), a Québec-based developer of wireless power transfer technology for unmanned systems, drones and autonomous machines.

Quaze will operate as an independent Red Cat business unit, continuing to develop and scale its wireless power architecture for integration across Red Cat's Family of Systems, while maintaining its platform-agnostic model supporting third-party OEMs across air, ground and maritime domains.

Safe Pro Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SPAI), a developer of AI-enabled defense, security, and situational awareness solutions, announced progress in its AI-powered threat detection collaboration with Lantronix Inc. (LTRX), a global provider of Edge AI and Industrial IoT solutions that power NDAA-compliant unmanned systems, critical infrastructure, and resilient enterprise networks. The collaboration supports integration with Lantronix's System-on-Module (SOM) platform for real-time robotic edge processing. The milestone follows a 120-day development cycle and positions the solution for broad integration into next-generation autonomous platforms.

The accelerated technical collaboration has sharpened Safe Pro's focus on Edge-native AI and vision processing for airborne robotic platforms. This focus includes supporting on-device AI engines and Neural Processing Units (NPUs), enabling real-time processing of video, sensor, and neural workloads for object detection and image analysis without cloud dependence. Lantronix's Open-Q SOM solutions are currently utilized in a wide variety of robotic and autonomous platforms including the U.S. Army Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) drones. Under a Master Services Agreement signed earlier this year, the Companies agreed to the joint development, integration and commercialization of new embeddable chipsets for the emerging ecosystem of Qualcomm®-based drone and autonomous vehicle platforms, including native support for Safe Pro Object Threat Detection (SPOTD) AI algorithms and models.

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