After weeks of rising excitement across the international AI community, Ai Everything GLOBAL is officially underway in the UAE after a thrilling opening day kicked off the year’s largest public-private global AI gathering.

Organised by Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and KAOUN International in affiliation with GITEX GLOBAL, Ai Everything Global is the world’s premier AI event. It welcomes the most influential AI stakeholders across Abu Dhabi and Dubai from February 4-6 – paving the way for participants to examine the technology’s global impact, propel cross-continental collaboration, and define new boundaries for AI innovation.

Live from the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, the Ai Everything Summit headlined the Tuesday programme as a capacity crowd and action-packed agenda marked a sensational start to the AI industry’s 2025 international events and exhibitions calendar.

H.E. Faisal Al Bannai, Adviser to the UAE President & Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), hailed the influence and impact of AI globally during an inspirational keynote speech. H.E. declared: “Every generation throughout human history likely said they lived during an interesting time; however, I believe we can truly say that we are living in a world where AI innovation is redefining and reshaping what’s possible like never before. The Age of Intelligence is just beginning – and there is still so much to transpire and achieve in terms of AI. The possibilities are increasingly immense with how fast the AI ecosystem is innovating and evolving – and open source is one of many aspects encouraging collaboration and empowering all to harness AI capabilities.”

H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy & Remote Work Applications, also emphasised AI’s vital role in the UAE’s future socio-economic development. He said: “We want to deploy things that benefit quality of life. If we want this technology to proliferate, if we want AI to be part of each and every one of our lives, we have to make sure it is also economic in terms of ability to access it, with a good economic value.”

It’s Ai in Everything: Diverse Perspectives Amidst Tectonic Market Shifts

Featuring distinguished government heads, technology directors, and Chief AI Officers alongside market-leading AI innovators, executives, and policymakers, the Ai Everything Summit staged an enthralling series of the most thought-provoking, insight-fuelled debates and discussions surrounding current AI dynamics and the industry’s future trajectory.

As a unifying platform for addressing pressing industry challenges and analysing the most incredible opportunities amidst deep structural market shifts, the Summit welcomed renowned visionaries from a wide variety of increasingly AI-critical industries. Alongside the energy, education, healthcare, finance, government, Industry 4.0, and creative economy sectors, Ai Everything Global cast a unique spotlight on AI’s rising influence across film, television, and digital entertainment. 

Amongst the many major Day 1 highlights was an incredible interactive presentation by Jonathan Bronfman, the world-famous creator of Vanity AI tech used in Hollywood Blockbusters like ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ and Netflix’s record-breaking viewership series ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Squid Game’. The Co-Founder of Canadian VFX studio Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ) shared fascinating insights surrounding the movie industry’s AI-driven revolution during ‘The Death of Retakes: How AI is Rewriting Hollywood in Minutes’.

Bronfman spoke in glowing terms regarding AI’s future in film, insisting the industry will benefit tremendously from the technology’s revolutionary capabilities. He said: “Gen AI will impact Hollywood in a massive way. The spectacle traditionally seen in movies like Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, and Star Wars is expensive and time-consuming. GenAI will make film production and development more affordable which studios desperately need – while still attracting audiences to the big screen.”

Whilst advocating AI-Hollywood collaboration, Bronfman assured audiences that people will always be essential, despite rising concerns regarding AI displacing industry jobs: “A fully GenAI movie or series is not a threat to Hollywood. The human touch will never disappear because human creativity and intelligence are unmatched. If you look at YouTube influencers and the way they’re pulling eyeballs away from Hollywood already; consumption habits are changing massively. That’s the biggest threat facing the industry.”

From governance frameworks, commercialisation requirements, and cross-industry pivots to market-altering developments, first-hand projections, and the global AI leadership race, the summit was met with critical acclaim as attendees examined the radical winds of change reverberating across digital economies globally. With AI proving both unifying and divisive globally, audience members witnessed world-leading experts present a range of broad perspectives.

Amongst the many was a panel discussion titled ‘How is AGI Accelerating? Navigating the Growing Pressure to Fast-Track AI Innovation’. Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley, stressed an urgent necessity for stringent AI industry regulations, revealing: “This narrative that regulation stifles innovation is toxic – the record shows us that unregulated digital technologies can cause severe harm. We – as experts in AI – do not understand how this technology works. And when it doesn’t work, nobody has a way of fixing it. Nodody really knows what’s next. Whether making the next generation of large language models bigger will produce AGI is just speculation at the moment.”

Another standout session involved Kate Darling, Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab in the US. During an interactive presentation and robot demo, she shed light on groundbreaking research surrounding a future where robots and people work and co-exist in harmony: “Engineers have been working for decades to produce a robot that’s robust, reliable, and safe enough to roll out on the public street. For me personally, the most interesting thing isn’t necessarily the technical developments that we’ve seen. The really interesting thing is what happens when you take AI and robotics and put them together with people. Because as people start to encounter these technologies in their daily lives, we see some really interesting reactions.”

Examining the Winds of AI-Driven Change Globally

As the first AI-focused event following recent era-defining AI developments – from the $500 billion Stargate announcement to DeepSeek’s emergence and divisive debates at the 2025 World Economic Forum – Ai Everything Global provided the perfect platform to examine evolving global power dynamics.

Whilst fulfilling its critical touchpoint pledge for the technologically ambitious to broaden industry acumen, engage with AI leaders, and accelerate strategies through prolific public-private networking, a unique spotlight was cast on regional AI integration and deployment progression.

Stephen Burt shared positive insights when elaborating on whether affordable AI is the key to breaking a perceived big tech power concentration and driving innovation. The Government of Canada’s Chief Data Officer said: “We can get there, and we’ve actually done the basics in ensuring we have the core data in the right places alongside required infrastructure. Whether the big AI winners are in Silicon Valley, from the venture capital area, or elsewhere around the world, achieving desired results is possible because AI models are becoming so much more accessible.”

Ott Velsberg, the Estonian Government’s renowned Chief Data Officer who oversees data and AI governance in Europe’s top-rated country for digital public sector services, also revealed how countries globally could thrive following successful AI and data analytics utilisation: “A more proactive government is the way to go – actively collaborating with the private sector whilst educating the public sector. Over the last two years, data-intensive companies have grown their revenue by 60% on average, which amounts to €5.7 million daily. International collaboration has grown stronger than ever before – and different universities and countries are also pulling their resources together when faced with adversity.”

Next Up at Ai Everything Global 2025

After a defining first day in Abu Dhabi, the Ai Everything Global programme switches to another of the UAE’s rising AI capitals of the world as Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC) hosts a highly anticipated Exhibition Showcase (5-6 February).

Live from Expo City, Wednesday and Thursday will highlight groundbreaking R&D use cases alongside the most transformative real-world applications covering governments, business, society, and core pillars of global economies.

Awaiting visitors is an exclusive first-hand discovery of the most patented and award-winning AI innovations from 70-plus countries, featuring a highly curated selection of over 500 exceptional pure AI companies and fastest-rising startups, with 70% marking their regional debut.  

Among the many world-leading tech powerhouses exhibiting are ASUS, Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Dell, e&, Fortinet, G42, HP, and IBM. Others include Intel, Lenovo, Nokia, Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, Red Hat, Technology Innovation Institute (TII), and Zoom.