By Alaa Antar – Regional Sales Manager, Liferay

AI is revolutionizing enterprises by enhancing efficiency, personalizing customer experiences, and unlocking new business opportunities. With Machine Learning (ML) and Generative AI (GenAI) driving automation and data-driven insights, organizations can streamline operations, optimize decision-making, and foster innovation—while ensuring ethical AI practices that promote fairness, transparency, and security in a digital world.

While our introduction to Artificial Intelligence started as a sci-fi fantasy some decades back, today, it is rapidly intertwining with all things digital to infuse accuracy and generate quick results. AI underpins many aspects of our daily lives, often working behind the scenes to personalize our experiences, optimize processes, and even entertain us. From unlocking smartphones with facial recognition to receiving accurate product recommendations online, AI has become an integral part of our interactions with technology. According to PwC, the Middle East, is poised to become a global AI hub, and anticipated to accrue  US$320 billion in AI related benefits by 2030. 

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, delivering exceptional customer experiences is paramount. AI, low-code development, and automation are transforming the way businesses interact with their customers. By harnessing the power of these technologies, organizations can streamline operations, personalize interactions, and drive innovation.

Understanding AI, ML, and GenAI 

At its core, artificial intelligence refers to the ability of machines to mimic human cognitive functions without explicit programming. These encompass a wide range of capabilities, such as learning and problem-solving, visual perception, speech recognition, and language translation with commonly known examples of Siri, ChatGPT and more. 

Artificial Learning (AI) usually refers to the field of machine learning. But AI can do more than just learn from data; it can also reason, make decisions, solve problems, and be creative.

As a subset of Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning (ML) powers many AI applications encountered daily. ML uses an algorithm, often referred to as a model, to analyze and extract patterns from data. . Over time, the models become adept at making predictions, classifications, and recommendations, automating tasks, and improving decision-making – all based on the learned pattern

Using ML and GenAI to Create Business Value

Early adopters of AI, ML, and GenAI gain a competitive edge. For example, both ML and GenAI offer great opportunities to unlock the hidden potential within the data in enterprises. ML uncovers valuable insights to inform strategies, while GenAI transforms content creation processes and personalize customer interactions.

Cumulatively, through a systematic leverage of AI, organizations improve decision-making, automate and streamline operations, and enhance customer experiences.

Practical examples of GenAI in the Enterprise:

• In customer service,​​​​​​​ GenAI can handle real-time language translation to support agents responding to customer queries from multiple regions. AI-powered chatbots can answer routine questions, engage in dynamic conversations, offer empathetic responses. By offloading common inquiries, human agents can focus on complex, high-value tasks, leading to improved efficiency and enhanced customer satisfaction.
• In marketing, GenAI can support generating personalized marketing copy, headlines and social media posts based on target audience preferences. GenAI can even be trained on a company’s brand voice and product data, automatically crafting unique descriptions for online stores.
• In product design, GenAI can assist by generating design variations or optimizing product descriptions for different markets and target groups. If trained on existing product data and user reviews, GenAI can suggest design iterations to address customer pain points or cater to specific market preferences, allowing for data-driven product development and accelerating time-to-market. 
• In media production, GenAI can assist in scriptwriting, music composition, and movie trailers.

Responsible AI: A Crucial Consideration

Although AI offers immense potential, it also demands careful consideration of ethical implications. Models learn from data, and if that is biased, the resulting outputs can lead to discriminatory outcomes. Additionally, the lack of transparency in some AI algorithms can make it difficult to understand how they reach their conclusions. That’s why ensuring responsible AI development and use is paramount. Here’s why:

• Fairness and bias – Biased training data can lead to biased outputs. Businesses should scrutinize data and employ debiasing techniques to provide fairness, accountability and transparency in AI.
• Transparency and trust – Algorithms that are a “black box” can erode trust. Businesses should strive for transparency in AI decision-making processes and provide explanations for outputs, allowing users to assess their validity. Users deserve explanations for GenAI outputs and an understanding of how the AI arrived at its results.
• Human oversight. AI and ML should augment, not replace human judgement. A “human-in-the-loop” approach ensures ethical considerations are factored in and safeguards against unintended consequences.​​​​​​​
• Privacy and security. AI systems that handle sensitive data necessitate robust privacy and security measures. Enterprises should comply with data protection regulations and implement appropriate safeguards to protect user privacy.

Embracing AI is not just about adopting new technologies—but about rethinking business strategies.  Integrating AI, ML, and GenAI into daily operations can reveal hidden efficiencies, enable personalization, spark innovation, and secure a competitive edge in a digital world. 

​In addition, Open source DXP platforms such as Liferay encourage organizations to adopt a BYOAI (Bring your own AI) approach. This facilitates a formidable combination of Gen AI with DXP platforms, driving advanced results and widening new possibilities of use cases through combined features. As an example, Liferay’s robust out-of-the-box content management features simplifies social media posting through a tailored approach to communicate with audiences using the company’s preferred AI engines. Organizations can then accurately schedule and publish content on different platforms such as FB, Twitter and LinkedIn. This empowers a marketeer with seamless integration to streamline different workflows, save time and ensure consistent messaging across different channels making it an essential tool to enhance social media strategy across content and images.

By breaking down the complexities of AI, enterprises can embark on this journey with confidence. Implemented ethically and responsibly, AI can fuel sustainable growth, enhance decision-making, please customers, and shape a future where human expertise and AI capabilities work in harmony.

By: Tony van den Berge, VP, EMEA at Cloudflare

The market for AI-generated music and audiovisual (AV) content is set to skyrocket in the next couple of years, growing from around €3 billion today to €64 billion in 2028. While this may be good news for those dancing to Gen AI’s tune, it’s likely to hit a bum note for content creators.

Despite providing the “creative fuel of the Gen AI content market,” these human creators could be about to see their income drop by around a quarter.

That amounts to a cumulative loss of €22 billion over the next five years – €10 billion in music and €12 billion in audiovisual – according to a new report commissioned by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), which represents some five million people in the creative industries.

The report – Study on the economic impact of Generative AI in the Music and Audiovisual industries – is touted as the first-ever global study of its kind to tackle the subject. It warns that unless this situation changes, content creators will be squeezed on two fronts: the loss of revenues because of the unauthorised use of their works by Gen AI models, and the loss of income from people buying AI-generated content.

“For creators of all kinds, from songwriters to film directors, screenwriters to film composers, AI has the power to unlock new and exciting opportunities – but we have to accept that, if badly regulated, generative AI also has the power to cause great damage to human creators, to their careers and livelihoods,” said CISAC President and ABBA frontman Björn Ulvaeus.

“Which of these two scenarios will be the outcome? This will be determined in large part by the choices made by policy makers, in legislative reviews that are going on across the world right now. It’s critical that we get these regulations right, protect creators’ rights and help develop an AI environment that safeguards human creativity and culture,” he said.

Content creators face an existential threat
While there is clearly a role for legislation, technology can also help provide a solution not only to protect content from Gen AI creators, but also to provide an avenue to monetise it.

With so much content online – everything from those who make a living from art and animation to filmmakers and wordsmiths – it’s a problem that extends far beyond the music industry.

In most cases, site owners have had little control over how AI services use their content for training or other purposes. Recently, though, new tools have been developed that make it easier for site owners, creators, and publishers to take back control of their content.
Cloudflare empowers creators with tools to safeguard and monetise their content
At Cloudflare, we are uniquely positioned to address these challenges by leveraging our global network to create innovative solutions. Our recently introduced AI Audit tools empower creators and site owners to regain control over their content in the age of generative AI. These tools allow creators to monitor AI bot activity, identifying which AI services are accessing their content, how often, and what specific material is being targeted. With one-click solutions, creators can block unauthorised AI crawlers, ensuring only approved entities can use their work. Beyond protection, Cloudflare helps them monetise their content by giving them analytics and control over who can scan based on the licensing agreements they sign with model providers.

To understand how these new tools fit into the bigger picture, it’s worth stepping back to see how AI models are accessing digital content in the first place. Bots typically “crawl” the internet looking for material. “Good bots” – such as search engine crawlers – are beneficial because they help people discover sites and drive traffic. “Bad bots,” on the other hand, can pose a security threat.

But the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) and other generative tools has created a murkier third category. Unlike malicious bots, some of the crawlers associated with Gen AI platforms are simply looking to hoover up content to train new LLMs. And that’s precisely the problem for content creators.

New tools are key in battle to monetise content
That’s why there’s so much interest around the development of these solutions. Not only do they allow content providers to identify who – or what – is scraping their content, they also allow them to block access to particular bots.

The result is two-fold. First, content creators are able to stop scrapers from accessing their intellectual property. Second, it allows content creators to negotiate access deals directly with AI companies. In other words, it gives content creators the chance to be paid for their output.

In a sign that the balance of power may already be shifting in terms of control and ownership, many of those contracts include terms about the frequency of scanning and the type of content that can be accessed.

That said, it’s still early days. There is still some uncertainty about the value of content used this way, and standardization discussions on enforceable mechanisms to express AI crawling preferences are still ongoing. Meanwhile,  site owners are at a disadvantage while they play catch-up. But unless – and until – there is a resolution, content creators and site owners will be discouraged from launching or maintaining Internet properties.

The fear is that more and more creators will stash their content behind paywalls, which may solve one problem but could invariably lead to others.

Ultimately, all parties – policymakers, tech companies, and creators – need to come together to enable AI innovation to thrive while safeguarding creativity. For those in the music industry, it’s not just a question of harmony, but of hitting the right notes too.

By Sandra Mottoh, Chief Compliance Officer, Responsible Gaming MENA.

The year 2025 is set to be a big one for the Metaverse. What started as a futuristic idea is now growing at an incredible pace, with global expansion expected at 37% annually until 2030. But it’s not about the numbers. It is about how the Metaverse changes how we game, shop, interact, and do business online. 

In the UAE, I see an excellent opportunity for banks, payment providers, and other key players to step in and participate in this transformation. Those who get involved early while staying on the right side of regulation will have the best chance of success. In this article, we will explore how the UAE can embrace this digital shift while keeping innovation and compliance in perfect balance. 

The Metaverse: A New Era of Digital Commerce and Culture

At first, many viewed the Metaverse as a new way to play games, but it’s become a virtual economy today. Experts predict it will contribute around $200 billion to the global economy by 2026, largely thanks to NFTs and virtual goods. 

This is an incredible opportunity for the UAE, as the country has always been at the forefront of digital change. I am excited to see what is coming next with the Metaverse. Dubai’s Metaverse Strategy is already setting things in motion, with a target to create over 42,000 virtual jobs and add $4 billion to the economy by 2030. 

What makes the Metaverse so powerful is that, in many ways, it is similar to the real world regarding commerce. You can buy, sell, and trade assets, even virtual real estate. This opens the door for banks and payment providers to come in with specialised products that allow for seamless transactions. 

I am particularly curious about how the rich culture of the UAE could come to life in the Metaverse. Imagine regional arts, heritage, and other local creations that people can own and trade. With the right financial support in place, this could be a game-changer for both culture and commerce in the Metaverse. 

Financial Wellness in the Metaverse: Balancing Culture and Commerce 

Indeed, the Metaverse offers exciting economic opportunities but comes with financial risks. Younger players who aren’t very familiar with virtual assets are the most vulnerable. I came across a study by the National Gaming Foundation that revealed nearly 50% of young gamers carry out virtual transactions without fully understanding the risks. As a result, they end up overspending and, sometimes, fall victim to fraud. This is where I see a real chance for banks and payment service providers to make a meaningful impact. 

The banks and payment service providers have the resources to promote financial wellness within the Metaverse. One great approach is introducing educational tools directly into gaming platforms, giving younger players the knowledge they need to make smart financial choices. 

I commend the UAE for its efforts to improve financial wellness. For example, the UAE Financial Literacy Strategy, which aims to improve citizens’ financial knowledge, is already in motion. Programs like MoneySense, introduced in 2017, have also been helping residents become more financially savvy. 

Banks can build on these efforts by offering tools for managing digital currency, setting up spending alerts, and providing virtual budgeting features. These solutions would help users track their virtual assets and encourage responsible spending habits — both in the Metaverse and in real life. 

Regulation: Vital to a Safe Metaverse Ecosystem

Like anything else, the Metaverse needs clear rules and regulations to ensure a safe and secure digital environment. This is particularly important in the UAE, where commercial gaming is still developing. While the country already has a solid framework for fintech and digital payments, more needs to be done to address the Metaverse’s uniqueness.

The UAE will need to adapt its digital regulations to align with the virtual economy. One core focus is for the virtual assets to follow the same level of scrutiny as traditional financial systems. In other words, banks and payment service providers must enforce strict anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) practices. That will help keep things transparent and prevent fraud.

Looking into data from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), I found that global money laundering risks linked to cryptocurrencies and virtual assets are on the rise. This highlights how crucial regulatory compliance is in the Metaverse. If the UAE wants to lead in this space while protecting businesses and consumers, it must take a proactive approach to building a well-regulated virtual economy.

The Future of Metaverse Gaming: Collaborating for Financial Innovation

As we look ahead, the UAE must stay open-minded about the Metaverse. I say so because the virtual economy will only expand, and when it does, service providers will find themselves engaging local and international players. It presents a massive opportunity that banks and financial institutions cannot afford to overlook.

The big question is: How can UAE-based banks keep up with global demand? My answer is collaboration. They will need to work closely with regulators, developers, and operators as the Metaverse grows. Everyone must do their part to keep the virtual economy secure and compliant to build a solid metaverse that benefits everyone.