Rudie Opperman: Regional Manager, Engineering & Training – MEA at Axis Communications

1. How is AI transforming the role of security cameras from passive monitoring tools into intelligent decision-making systems?

AI is fundamentally changing what security cameras are used for. Cameras are no longer just recording devices that capture footage for review after an incident. They are becoming intelligent sensors that can interpret what is happening in real time.

With AI built directly into the camera, systems can detect objects, recognise patterns and identify unusual behaviour as events unfold. This enables organisations to move from reactive monitoring to proactive decision-making, responding faster and more accurately without relying solely on manual observation or post-incident analysis.

Axis will demonstrate this shift in practice at Intersec Dubai 2026, showing how intelligence at the edge enables cameras to generate actionable insights directly at the source, supporting faster decisions, improved safety and stronger operational outcomes across complex environments.

• How can AI in security cameras enhance operational efficiency while reducing manual monitoring costs?

AI significantly reduces the reliance on continuous manual monitoring by filtering out routine activity and directing attention to events that genuinely require action.

Instead of operators watching multiple screens or reviewing large volumes of footage, analytics highlight exceptions such as unusual movement, safety risks or policy violations. This improves response times, reduces operator fatigue and allows teams to manage larger or more distributed environments without increasing staffing levels.

For organisations operating at scale, this approach delivers measurable efficiency gains while maintaining high levels of situational awareness and control.

• What are the key benefits of edge-based AI processing in security cameras?

Edge-based AI enables data to be processed directly within the camera rather than being sent to central servers or the cloud for analysis.

This allows insights to be generated immediately at the scene, supporting faster response and more reliable system behaviour. It also reduces bandwidth usage and storage requirements, lowering infrastructure demands and overall system complexity.

Processing data locally strengthens resilience and privacy, as systems rely less on constant connectivity and continue to function effectively even in constrained or demanding environments.

• What industries are seeing the greatest impact from AI-enabled surveillance today?

AI-enabled surveillance is delivering the greatest impact in environments where real-time awareness, safety and operational continuity are critical.

This includes sectors such as critical infrastructure, transport and logistics, industrial facilities, smart cities and large public venues. In these settings, AI helps organisations detect issues earlier, respond more effectively and maintain smooth operations in complex or high-risk conditions.

Increasingly, security cameras are also being used as sources of operational data, supporting compliance, planning and informed decision-making beyond traditional security use cases.

• How is Axis leveraging AI to deliver smarter, more reliable, and future-ready security camera solutions?

Axis embeds intelligence directly into its devices and designs systems around open, scalable platforms that can evolve over time.

By combining edge-based analytics, purpose-built processing technology and a strong ecosystem of partners, Axis enables customers to adapt their systems as operational needs change. This approach supports long-term reliability, cybersecurity and consistent performance across the system lifecycle.

Rather than forcing frequent hardware replacement, Axis focuses on architectures that allow intelligence and functionality to grow through software, ensuring systems remain relevant, secure and effective as technology and use cases continue to evolve.

Exclusive Interview with Kevin Dallas, Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise DB

You interviewed more than 2000 senior executives across 13 countries about how they are planning for a genetic AI world. Why a genetic AI and why now?

Well, first of all there’s a large economic opportunity around AI. We forecast to be $16 trillion by 2030, and there’s about a trillion dollars that’s going to be spent in the area of AI over the next 12 months alone. So, every enterprise, every nation is investing in AI.

And when we say AI, there’s different types of AI. There’s generative AI, genetic AI, physical AI, and the time is now for that investment. You’re seeing it in the event today where many companies are making investments across the AI spectrum.

What is the data and AI sovereignty, and what happens when enterprises make it a mission-critical part of their strategy?

Well, to be able to actually run these intelligent applications, there is a need for a sovereign data and AI platform from EDB, Enterprise DB, our partners, NVIDIA, RedHat, and Supermicro. And with this new sovereign platform, we hope to deliver our customers the platform that they need to drive rapid innovation around these new AI applications.

Data sovereignty is gaining increased attention globally in the Middle East and the surrounding markets. How is EDB ensuring compliance, trust, and performance in your deployments?

Well, first of all, we’re finding that in this survey, it was very interesting, 95% of respondents are investing in a sovereign data and AI platform over the next three years.

And what they’re seeing is real benefits. They’re seeing two to three extra the velocity in terms of building out AI applications, and they’re seeing a five-fold increase in ROI. So, this is driving a lot of attention around this space.

Now, from an EDB perspective, we are delivering a standard sovereign data and AI platform that accelerates our customers to market. So, it’s a plug and play platform that resolves the security issues, compliance issues, and regulatory challenges that our customers have in a plug and play way.

How important is the UAE or the GCC region for EDB? Can you tell us about your corporate strategy in the GCC and how that aligns with the regional’s national agenda?

Well, what we found is that the biggest investments globally in sovereign data and AI are actually happening here in the region, in the UAE. There is a national vision that’s been set around open and around sovereign data and AI.

So, we’re very aligned in terms of our approach here. And the region, it’s very much like a Silicon Valley of sovereign data and AI, where there’s a lot of rich discussion around new use cases that our partners and our customers want to enable today versus tomorrow. So, it’s here and now in the region.

Looking ahead, six to 12 months from now, what is your message to the enterprises, governments, and other organizations who are considering or already on the AI journey?

I think in the next six to 12 months, focus on building your own sovereign data and AI platform. By doing this, it’s going to have a fivefold increase in your ROI and certainly increase your velocity to market.

But there is also, I think, a misconception. When we talk about sovereign, we talk about the benefit of secure, we talk about the benefit of compliance and regulatory requirements. Meeting those criteria, in some cases, can be viewed as slowing down the rate of innovations.

The opposite is true with our platform. By using a platform that has this capability built in, you’re able to accelerate your time to market.

How does EDB Postgres AI support data sovereignty in practice?

From a sovereign data and AI platform perspective, there are five key criteria that our customers need in the platform. One, open source based. This guarantees interoperability, access to talent, and it avoids vendor lock-in. This is something that even at a national level is important, open source based.

Second, the need to support multiple workloads, transactional, analytics, and AI workloads on one unified platform. Not three, but one. Third, there’s a need for a low-code, no-code application development environment. An environment that accelerates your time to market, an environment that democratizes AI for all.

So, you don’t have to be a developer, you can be a business decision maker and still create applications. Fourth, there needs to be a single pane glass view across the estate so you can monitor, secure, and drive compliance and meet those regulatory requirements across your entire estate. And then last, but by no means least, you need to be able to deploy in a hybrid fashion, meaning it’s not all about running workloads in the cloud.

You need to be able to run workloads on-prem, in the cloud, or in a dedicated system. So Sovereign is really those five things. It’s the ability to deploy in a hybrid manner.

It’s the ability to view your estate through a single pane of glass. It’s the ability to be able to run in a rich and dynamic low-code, no-code app environment, run multiple workloads, and of course, being open source.

Exclusive interview with Kash Rafique, Vice President and GM Middle East and Africa, Enterprise DB

What are your top priorities and what do you want the region to see from EDB that’s new and different at this year’s GITEX?

I think certainly from a messaging point of view, there’s no doubt that sovereignty is the new intelligence on how we move forward in this market. I think what we’re seeing is that our customers are looking for speed, they’re looking for control of their data within their boundaries, and this is making a big difference really to customers and enterprises in the region. I think that’s where we come in as a trusted player, a partner in the region.

What you’re seeing here at the stand today at EDB is really an alignment of that, the immersive experience here we’re giving to our customer to help them understand some of the solutions that we’re able to provide so far as speed is concerned, control of their data within that sovereignty realm is really something that we are showcasing here.

Can you walk us through to the Sovereignty Matters report, which is quite interesting. What are the biggest takeaways for local enterprises?

First of all, I think we should be very proud, of UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, because really they’ve come on top of a global report across 13 economies, across 2,000 enterprises, right the way across the globe. I think what is really appealing or revealing from the report is that 17% of organizations in this region are deeply committed to both data and AI, and this is a significant amount. Compare that to what we are seeing globally, which is 13%, or compare it to the UK, which is 10%, this is significantly higher.

It shows real intent and focus on the sovereignty areas, and I think that’s a big thing. The other thing that we see is the 5x return that enterprises are getting from that commitment that they’ve made. I think this is also very, very testimonial on the kind of return that we’re able to see from the sovereign AI solutions that clients are adopting in this region.

And the third one is 2 ½ x are very confident that they will be leading their industries within their respective areas within the next three years. I think this is a fantastic finding. Again, I think the region should be very, very proud of these results.

How is EDB preparing to lead and support its customers through your local office?

So, the local office is there as a hub to support a very important omnichannel of our business here, and that is related to the partners, the alliances, and the ISVs that are regionally based. The office will be used for workshops, training, engineering, and client innovation centers that we’re planning to build as we move through this year.

We certainly looking forward to is building our relationships even further with key partners such as NVIDIA, IBM, Supermicro, Red Hat, and also many of our local partners. We call them our boutique partners, but they’re also equally important. So, from this perspective, it’s a very important base for us.

It provides a hub, it shows investment, and it shows real commitment in the sovereignty space that we’re actively involved with here in the region.