I've been beta-ing the pre-patch stuff for a few weeks. The Cue Cappa *regularly* send in fleets of 20+ ships, as do the Eee Consortium.
And when I saw a single Eee DN hanging out by itself I thought I'd be trick and hit it with a fleet of 18 pretty high tech DSs. 2 of my DSs escaped, 16 died, and I didn't even get through it's shields.
I think the AI is doing pretty well these days, though I purposefully hamper myself by NOT allowing tactical combat. After all, it IS a strategic game.
John