Conference Presentation, Panel, Fireside Chat
Capturing AI’s Momentum: Pathways to Growth and Productivity | Middle East & Africa Summit 2025
- The AI race is projected to yield multiple winners combining advanced technology with data, talent, and proper usage, with the United States expected to lead this competition over the next 12 months and several subsequent years.
- IBM aims to maintain leadership by extending the impact of its "Client Zero" initiative, which has generated $4.5 billion in savings and currently resolves 90% of IT issues, with capabilities planned for expansion into supply chain and customer service.
- Aggressive AI skilling efforts are expected in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, while broader market benefits will continue to reach consumers and enterprises as technology becomes entrenched.
- The future enterprise landscape will be defined by organizations leveraging the 99% of currently unused data to improve client service or reduce costs, with the value of this data anticipated to materialize within the current lifetime.
- Specific industry implementations include Etihad Airways increasing passenger volume from 10 million in 2022 to 22 million this year while utilizing dynamic pricing three to four times daily and AI for pre-selecting candidates from 100,000 CVs annually.
- Metropolis reports onboarding 1 to 2 users every 1 to 2 seconds in the U.S., targeting 21 million sign-ups, while quantum chips are expected to enable commercial use in three to four years for applications like protein mapping.
- Future AI models are predicted to evolve toward "precognitive" capabilities that eliminate workflows entirely and become more specialized and cost-efficient, reducing the need for on-premises GPU power.
- Critical adoption risks include the unprecedented pace of change which threatens skilled laborers if retraining does not accelerate, alongside concerns regarding data misuse, algorithmic bias, and hallucination.
- The "Cold War" dynamic for AI dominance between the U.S. and China is framed as a decisive conflict, with the primary threat identified as the potential for organizations or nations to fall behind due to slow adoption speeds.