Just think, if each company had a separate AI that each has a different set of "character traits", that they use to evaluate and make decisions, it would at the very least make each company feel different (from the current sameyness), and beyond that, the gameplay improvements would be immense and might even surprise people with what actions they take to achieve success!

I'm not even talking some self aware super AI either, just one that learns on the most basic level from its experiences, which it analyzes based off criteria that are important to it (this is where each company can differ) and seeks to take actions that bring about favorable results.

Let's say all companies are programmed with "Wars are costly and possibly mean the end, but winning wars and getting stations and ships for almost free is a HUGE boon for the company" This one cost/benefit analysis could result in a number of approaches.

If the AI likes to play it safe, they could build up defensive fleets at places where their company has many stations, and also maybe never start wars unless they have a huge combat advantage over the enemy. They also might seek to capture/own a shipyard so they could buy ships at cost and thus gain a large combat force at much cheaper than normal prices.

But if in that same situation, an aggressive approach might also yield good results. (The Pirate Approach) Attacking unprotected freighters or weak war fleets smaller companies to boost its own freighter and combat ship numbers and gain a trade advantage, or to simply scrap the ships for a quick cash gain (instead of paying for repairs, to use them). This approach also largely avoids paying for ships directly, but runs with potentially high repair costs and depends on the growth of other companies for it to prey upon.

A third option in that situation could be the "Little Guy Approach". Where companies that are close to last place in the listings find common cause with eachother and act in unison to bring about change or protect eachother from the companies at the top. Lets say 4 companies at the bottom don't like that the company in the #2 position is getting a worrying amount of combat ships at it's disposal. They don't want to just wait to be attacked one by one... each company wouldn't stand a chance on their own, but if they all declare war at once, they can possibly bring about a victory, knocking the giant company down a few notches....(and gain some ships and stations for themselves in the mean time)

All these approaches are different actions an AI company can take to try and gain success. And there are so many more examples I could give.

To an extent this is just an extension of what is already in the game. Some companies start with shipyards, others start with many Farm Stations, pirates start with more combat ships, etc. Each company is already given an "identity". I'm just advocating that this difference is added to their decision making programming.

In the long run having an AI for each company that evaluate actions based off of their "personaliy" would greatly enhance the feeling of a vibrant universe full of individual actors, rather than the feeling that each company just uses the same "universal AI".

Even though this post was somewhat long, I don't feel like I've explained very well. If you have any questions about this suggestion just ask :)