Tech News

UAE Leads in AI Enthusiasm and Application Insights from a Global BCG Survey

Published

2 years ago

June 25, 2024

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), sentiment towards generative AI (GenAI) is overwhelmingly positive. This enthusiasm aligns with global trends showing high consumer awareness and excitement about AI. According to new research by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), titled “Consumers Know More About AI than Business Leaders Think”, consumers’ knowledge and excitement about AI is surprisingly high.

BCG’s research is based on a survey conducted by BCG’s Center for Customer Insight to measure the level of awareness of AI and GenAI, as well as usage and sentiment among 21,000 respondents from 21 countries across six continents. It also explored questions relevant to the use of AI in the workplace.

“While perception and usage vary by market, age, and exposure, consumers in the UAE profoundly appreciate AI, surpassing many other regions,” commented Rami Mourtada, Partner & Director at BCG. “This finding highlights the region’s forward-thinking attitude towards technology and should be a wake-up call for business leaders. The high engagement levels in the UAE show the need for responsible AI frameworks that address consumers’ data privacy concerns. We must continue fostering this positive outlook while addressing the concerns accompanying such seismic shifts.”

Global and UAE-Specific Insights on AI Adoption and Sentiment

Globally, over 80% of survey participants are aware of GenAI, with a quarter actively using it. Notably, younger individuals under 35 show higher engagement, with 86% awareness and 32% usage compared to 80% awareness and 20% usage among those over 35.

The UAE demonstrates more robust engagement and nuanced sentiments towards GenAI. In the UAE, 91% of consumers know GenAI and 34% use these technologies. Emotions are mixed: 37% are excited, 46% feel conflicted, and 17% are concerned, resulting in a net sentiment of 20% (excited minus concerned).

Governments like the UAE showcase robust AI engagement, with initiatives like the Falcon 2 AI model, designed to compete with Meta and Open AI. Positioning the country at the forefront of AI development. This highlights the region’s commitment to integrating AI across industries.

Excitement about AI in the Workplace

In the UAE, 67% of employees are excited about GenAI’s potential to enhance their work environment, with only 13% expressing concerns. This reflects a dynamic workforce that sees AI as a tool for innovation and efficiency, leading to a net sentiment of 54% in favor of AI.

AI applications are rapidly gaining popularity, and the UAE showcases its readiness to integrate AI at all business levels. Leaders must focus on people, process changes, and technological implementation to tap AI’s potential.

“The enthusiasm for GenAI among UAE professionals underscores a dynamic workforce that sees AI as a tool and a partner in driving innovation and efficiency. We must continue to foster this positive outlook while addressing the concerns that accompany such transformative changes,” said Mark Zaleski, Managing Partner & Director at BCG X.

Implications for Leaders

BCG report highlights several recommendations for business leaders to leverage GenAI successfully:

• Emphasize transparency and balanced sales when inventing new consumer applications.
• Pilot new ideas and products in markets that are more receptive to AI/GenAI and consider a tailored approach to privacy.
• As companies roll out new AI offerings, reassuring customers before the applications scale too fast, as it is important.
• It’s important to remember the 10-20-70 rule when working with data and technology. Focus 10% of the effort on technology development, 20% on deploying tech stacks, and 70% on change management and other people-related processes.

This means that most of the work should be focused on managing the changes that come with new systems, rather than just relying on data and technology.

Trust is crucial in AI adoption. Leaders must respect consumer and employee concerns while navigating the misinformation-excitement-concern curve and capitalizing on market opportunities.

Tech News

Snowflake powers KSA’s Zahid Group’s data and AI transformation to unlock enterprise value

Published

3 days ago

August 12, 2026

Integrator Web-Editor

Zahid Group, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading diversified business groups spanning heavy equipment, energy, transport and manufacturing, and others, has selected Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, as the strategic foundation for its enterprise data and AI transformation, giving the Group a scalable way to strengthen governance, advance AI adoption, and elevate customer experiences enterprise-wide. The relationship was formalized during a signing ceremony at Zahid Business Park in Jeddah, launching a multi-year investment that will strengthen productivity and support technology-led growth in line with Saudi Vision 2030.

With Snowflake, Zahid Group’s Digital Solutions Division is unifying data from across its business streams and departments on a governed, secure, centralized and scalable lakehouse platform. A modern business intelligence ecosystem will give leaders faster access to information, enabling them to spend less time reconciling reports and more time acting on insights. The next phase will use Snowflake Cortex AI to enable employees to engage with data through natural language, reducing reliance on traditional reporting and shortening the path from question to decision.

Snowflake’s adoption at Zahid Group comes as Saudi Arabia accelerates its goal of becoming the Middle East’s leading AI infrastructure and technology hub. The Council of Ministers has designated 2026 as the Year of AI, and PwC estimates that AI could contribute around 12.4% of the country’s GDP by 2030.

Before adopting Snowflake, Zahid Group’s data was dispersed across multiple systems, requiring extensive manual consolidation and resulting in reporting inconsistencies that slowed decision-making. As an early proof of value, the Caterpillar Helios initiative demonstrated the power of secure, real-time data sharing through Snowflake. Building on this foundation, Zahid Group is now extending Snowflake’s capabilities across its digital ecosystem, enabling real-time data streaming and integration with core platforms such as Infor and Salesforce.

This connected architecture has standardized critical reporting processes, reducing month-end reporting cycles from days to hours, and in many cases minutes. By eliminating manual effort and improving data consistency, it provides leaders with timely, trusted insights that support faster decision-making and strengthen a culture of data-driven innovation.

Suzan Sadek, Group IT Manager, Zahid Group, said: “Data is one of the most valuable assets of the digital economy. By choosing Snowflake, we are building a trusted and scalable data foundation that enables AI-driven innovation, faster decision-making, and improved customer experience. This transformation strengthens Zahid Group’s competitiveness, while supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 ambition to create a data-driven economy.”

Michel Nader, General Manager for the Middle East, Turkey & Africa, Snowflake, said: “Zahid Group is demonstrating how trusted data can become the foundation for enterprise AI at scale. Snowflake brings information closer to customers while providing leading AI capabilities to enable digital transformation across Zahid’s operating environment. We are proud to support the company’s next phase too, where employees can access trusted insights faster and strengthen the Group’s ability to create lasting and scalable value across its businesses.”

Looking ahead, Zahid Group will expand Snowflake’s platform’s role across the Group, extending governed data products, advanced analytics and AI capabilities into more business functions to deliver measurable value for customers, partners and employees.

Tech News

PNY Technologies Joins LEAP 2026 with the Latest AI Technologies – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 31 August to 3 September | Booth H3-D10

Published

4 days ago

August 11, 2026

Integrator Web-Editor

PNY Technologies announces its participation in LEAP 2026, taking place in Riyadh from 31 August to 3 September, where it will present its latest AI infrastructure and accelerated computing solutions.

The showcase will feature the technologies behind PNY’s AI infrastructure portfolio, from the AI Enterprise Factory to the latest NVIDIA RTX PRO and GeForce graphics solutions, together with networking and infrastructure technologies.

Visitors will also be able to explore the PNY AI Factory Digital Twin Configurator, which allows users to design and configure their own AI factory using digital twins and NVIDIA Omniverse.

PNY will also host live demonstrations developed in collaboration with its technology partners, including SOMOD, DDN, INFINIARC, VERTIV, and F5.

The company’s participation in LEAP 2026 reflects its continued commitment to supporting AI innovation across the Middle East and helping shape the technologies powering the region’s digital transformation.

The PNY team, including regional representatives, will be on-site throughout LEAP 2026 to meet with visitors, partners, and members of the media at Hall H3, Booth D10. Attendees wishing to arrange a briefing or interview are welcome to submit a request below.

Contact request: https://forms.pny.eu/pny-at-leap-2026/

Press contact: sverdier@pny.com / mhamdouche@pny.com

Tech News

Globant Introduces Glob.AI, Reinventing Technology Services for the AI Era

Published

4 days ago

August 11, 2026

Integrator Web-Editor

Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a global company focused on driving enterprise reinvention through AI, today introduces Glob.AI, a new AI-native tech services model that fundamentally changes how enterprises access, purchase and deploy AI services. Available online through a self-service model, Glob.AI gives organizations access to enterprise-grade, high quality AI Pods (service units run by a set of AI agents and supervised by humans). Companies are charged for what they produce -per output or per consumption- never per seat or per hour.

“For over 20 years, Globant has stayed ahead of every major technology shift, and AI is no different. Glob.AI is our next step: the one-stop shop where our AI Pods live, each specialized by task and industry. Traditional AI adoption drives token consumption far beyond what efficient output requires, and the real cost is the wasted tokens plus the unstructured, manual supervision of AI. AI Pods introduce a smarter model, running the right AI through parallel agents, loops, workflows, and deterministic processes, representing the true state of the art of what AI can deliver today,” said Martín Migoya, CEO and co-founder of Globant.

Glob.AI brings together AI-native velocity with Globant’s 23 years of enterprise delivery baked into the governance layer. AI agents do the heavy lifting, with Globant’s experts supervising their outputs and guiding every step. Glob.AI works to standards–documented, tested, secure, built for enterprise scale. It’s the speed AI promises, with the rigor and quality that businesses need, by including:

Well-defined, deterministic, and repeatable processes, supervised end to end by experts
Optimized AI usage and transparent pricing: customers pay strictly for expert-validated outputs and/or real consumption — not hours, seats, AI hallucinations, retries, or wasted cycles.
At least 30% more productive than the typical engineer-plus-AI approach
Full AI sovereignty and governance: total flexibility over which models customers use and where they run them, with zero client data ever used to train external models.
Token consumption secured in a client’s proprietary Token Vault, providing full traceability and compounding a client’s institutional knowledge over time.

“AI is not just making the same projects faster, it is making thousands of projects viable that never were before,” said Guibert Englebienne, co-founder of Globant. “Until today, enterprises could not buy technology services this way: instantly, transparently, paying only for results. That is the shift Glob.AI delivers, and the strong demand for AI Pods shows enterprises are ready for it.”

Organizations joining the waiting list at Glob.AI will gain early access to a comprehensive catalog of agentic workflows capable of building and deploying solutions for enterprise platforms and specialized industry use cases. The AI Pods in the offering also include partnerships with major organizations including Anthropic, AWS, Vercel, OpenAI, Adobe, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, SAP and Salesforce.

Traditional enterprise tech services require months of discovery, RFPs, and procurement cycles before the work begins. Glob.AI changes that model entirely. Users can log in and immediately start building enterprise grade software. Tech delivery becomes a live, continuous service rather than a fixed-term project — every improvement and release happening on the platform, fully visible to the client, in real time.

Globant released AI Pods in mid-2025, and they are already in use by several Fortune 500 organizations across media, entertainment, professional services, and finance, delivering early results that include:

FIFA experiencing a 20% efficiency increase in throughput generation while maintaining or improving quality rates
LALIGA deploying AI across key functions in three months
YPF reducing contract timelines by up to 40%
PharmaMar achieving 15x faster insights in oncology research
A leading commercial bank completing a COBOL migration in 2 months versus 14 as projected with a traditional approach