Enterprise AI has entered a new phase. The conversation is no longer centred on whether organisations should invest in artificial intelligence, but on how they can transform that investment into measurable business value.
By: Mohammed Hilili – General Manager, Lenovo Gulf
Across the GCC, enterprises are moving beyond experimentation. Pilot projects are giving way to enterprise-wide deployments as organisations seek to integrate AI into customer experiences, business operations, software development, cybersecurity and decision-making. Yet despite growing investment, many AI initiatives continue to struggle to deliver the outcomes leadership teams expect.
In my experience, the reason is rarely the technology itself. More often, organisations begin with the wrong conversation.
Too many AI discussions start with infrastructure specifications, GPU availability or the latest foundation models. These are undoubtedly important decisions, but they are not the first ones organisations should make.
The first question is much simpler.
What business problem are we trying to solve?
Without a clear answer, AI initiatives often remain isolated demonstrations of technical capability rather than platforms capable of delivering sustainable business value.
From AI Pilots to Enterprise Platforms
Across industries, organisations have spent the past two years experimenting with generative AI. Many have successfully launched departmental pilots that demonstrate what AI can achieve within a controlled environment. The greater challenge now lies in scaling those experiments across the enterprise.
That transition requires far more than additional computing power. It demands clear governance, high-quality data, well-defined business objectives and an architecture capable of supporting continuous growth. Successful AI adoption is increasingly becoming an organisational transformation exercise rather than simply another technology deployment.
Business Strategy Before Infrastructure
I recently worked with a leading regional financial institution looking to strengthen its research and development capabilities through AI. The ambition was clear, but many practical questions remained unanswered.
How much computing capacity would the organisation require? Which GPU architecture would support both current and future workloads? How could the environment remain scalable as AI adoption expanded across the business?
These may appear to be technology questions. In reality, they are strategic business decisions with long-term operational consequences.
Instead of beginning with hardware selection, we started by understanding the organisation’s objectives. Together with the leadership team, we assessed AI readiness, identified priority business outcomes and defined what success would look like before discussing infrastructure.
Only after establishing that foundation did we determine the appropriate compute resources, architectural approach and deployment model required to support long-term growth.
The result was not simply a successful implementation but an AI platform capable of evolving alongside the organisation’s ambitions.
AI Readiness Extends Beyond Technology
Many organisations still view AI readiness primarily through the lens of infrastructure. In reality, readiness begins much earlier.
Leadership alignment, data quality, governance frameworks, cybersecurity, skills development and measurable business outcomes all influence whether an AI initiative succeeds or stalls. Infrastructure remains essential, but it should support strategy rather than define it.
The organisations achieving the strongest results are those treating AI as a long-term business capability rather than a series of disconnected technology projects.
Building for a Hybrid AI Future
Enterprise AI environments are also becoming increasingly hybrid. Certain workloads will remain on-premises to address latency, compliance or data sovereignty requirements, while others will leverage the scalability of public cloud environments.
This makes architectural flexibility increasingly important. Organisations need infrastructure strategies capable of supporting multiple deployment models while allowing AI workloads to evolve alongside changing business priorities.
Selecting technology is therefore no longer simply about purchasing hardware. It is about building an adaptable foundation capable of supporting continuous innovation over many years.
The GCC Opportunity
The GCC is uniquely positioned to accelerate enterprise AI adoption. Governments across the region continue investing heavily in digital transformation, sovereign AI capabilities and next-generation cloud infrastructure while strengthening regulatory frameworks around data governance and cybersecurity.
These investments provide organisations with an increasingly mature environment in which to deploy AI at scale. However, long-term success will depend less on access to technology than on the ability to align AI investments with clear operational priorities and measurable business outcomes.
As AI becomes embedded within core enterprise operations, leadership decisions made today will determine competitive advantage for years to come.
Why Clarity Still Comes Before Compute
Technology will continue evolving at remarkable speed. New AI models, specialised processors and deployment approaches will continue reshaping the enterprise landscape.
What will remain constant is the importance of making the right decisions before investing.
At Lenovo, this philosophy shapes how we work with customers. We believe AI is not simply a product to deploy, but an organisational capability that develops over time. By combining advisory expertise with infrastructure, lifecycle services and long-term planning, organisations can reduce uncertainty, optimise investment and build AI platforms that continue creating value as business needs evolve.
The organisations that lead in the AI era will not necessarily be those with the largest AI budgets or the most powerful infrastructure. They will be those that begin with business clarity, build the right foundations and scale with purpose.
Because in enterprise AI, infrastructure enables transformation—but clarity makes it possible.
OPPO A7 Pro 5G puts longevity at the centre of the smartphone experience!
With an 8,000mAh battery, dual 50MP cameras, IP69K protection and a five-year smoothness promise, OPPO’s latest A Series smartphone makes a strong case for devices designed around longer-term ownership.
Smartphone launches have traditionally revolved around faster processors, increasingly sophisticated cameras and, more recently, AI. With the A7 Pro 5G, OPPO is putting another consideration firmly into the conversation: how well a smartphone can hold up over time.
At the centre of that proposition is an enormous 8,000mAh battery. Large-capacity batteries are becoming increasingly common, but what is interesting about the A7 Pro 5G is how little the battery dictates the physical character of the phone.
Despite the capacity, the device does not immediately look or feel like a rugged smartphone. The Shine Titanium review unit has an understated finish, while the alternative Surfing Blue introduces a more distinctive Dynamic 3D Wave Texture.
That relatively conventional appearance hides some serious durability credentials.
Built for longer ownership
The A7 Pro 5G carries IP69K dust and water resistance alongside military-grade shock resistance. Rainstorm Touch is designed to keep the display responsive even when used in heavy rain.
The longevity argument extends to the battery itself. OPPO says it can retain more than 80% of its rated capacity after 2,000 complete charging cycles, underpinning the company’s six-year battery durability proposition.
This matters because battery degradation remains one of the most noticeable compromises as smartphones age. Increasing capacity solves part of that equation; maintaining useful capacity several years into ownership potentially solves another.
Reverse wired charging also allows the A7 Pro 5G to supply power to another connected device, adding some practical value to that substantial battery reserve.
Selfies get the 50MP treatment
OPPO has also placed considerable emphasis on the front-facing camera.
The 50MP Ultra-Wide AI Zoom Selfie Camera offers a 100-degree field of view and can automatically move between 1x and 0.6x framing when additional people enter the shot.
It is a useful approach for group photographs, travel and increasingly video-led social content, where a wider front camera can make considerably more sense than simply increasing resolution. Ultra-steady video has also been included to improve handheld recording.
At the rear is another 50MP camera, using a larger 1/2-inch sensor that OPPO says captures 70% more light than its predecessor.
AI Portrait Glow, AI Popout and AI Remix Collage bring the increasingly familiar layer of computational editing into the camera experience, allowing users to manipulate images without moving immediately to third-party applications.
Five years of smoothness?
Underneath, the A7 Pro 5G is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6360 MAX, accompanied by OPPO’s NetworkBoost Chip S1 and AI LinkBoost 4.0.
A 4,300mm² Glacier VC Vapor Chamber handles cooling, while software-based resource and memory management is designed to maintain responsiveness as workloads increase.
Perhaps more interesting than outright performance figures is OPPO’s 5-Year Smoothness Protection. The company says the device has passed its five-year smoothness testing, reflecting a wider attempt to position performance around consistency rather than simply launch-day speed.
Naturally, five-year performance cannot be established during a conventional review period, but the emphasis itself is notable. Smartphone replacement cycles are lengthening, making sustained performance, battery health and software optimisation increasingly relevant purchasing considerations.
AMOLED keeps the experience contemporary
The front houses a 6.57-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, up to 1,400 nits of brightness and a 92.8% screen-to-body ratio.
The combination provides the fluid scrolling and vibrant presentation expected from a contemporary AMOLED smartphone, while complementing a device otherwise heavily focused on practical considerations.
Warranty coverage also extends across the GCC, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, potentially useful for users who regularly travel between these markets.
The 8,000mAh battery will inevitably attract most of the initial attention, but the A7 Pro 5G becomes more interesting when viewed as a complete package. OPPO is combining battery capacity with physical durability, thermal management, connectivity enhancements and longer-term performance optimisation. At the same time, it has avoided turning the device into something that visually resembles a specialist rugged phone.
BY: SRIJITH KN
A different definition of smartphone performance that may ultimately be the A7 Pro 5G’s more relevant proposition. Rather than asking how much faster a smartphone can become every year, OPPO is increasingly asking another question: how much longer can it remain useful?
Nearly every enterprise believes its AI agents are properly scoped. Only a third have actually made sure of it.
Today, new research from Cequence Security, the leader in application, API, and agentic AI protection, and Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) found that 94% of enterprise IT and security leaders are confident their AI agents do not have more access than they need, yet only 33% actually provision agents with least-privilege access. The remaining two-thirds run on broad standing permissions that are reviewed periodically, rarely reviewed, or never reviewed at all.
That gap between confidence and practice is already showing up in production, not a theoretical risk, but as incidents enterprises are living with right now. Among the organizations surveyed:
65% have experienced an AI agent take an action outside its intended scope, including 29% with measurable business impact, including data exposure, financial loss, operational disruption, or reputational damage. Another 36% caught a near-miss before it caused damage.
Only 32% can detect and contain an out-of-scope agent action within minutes through automated means; 55% need hours and manual steps to respond.
In approximately 4% of organizations surveyed, the first sign of trouble came from a customer or outside partner, not an internal system.
The findings point to one clear story. Governance has not kept pace with the speed of agentic AI deployment, and that gap is showing up at every stage of the agent lifecycle, from how agents are provisioned, to how their actions are authorized, to how they are decommissioned once a pilot ends. Other key findings from the report include:
Enterprises Have Moved Past the Pilot Stage
The scale of deployment makes the gap more urgent. 46% of organizations report they are already scaling agentic AI across multiple departments and production workflows, and 79% are running generative and agentic AI simultaneously. Further, more than 92% report an increase in AI and bot-driven traffic targeting customer-facing applications and APIs.
Authorization is Checked at the Wrong Time, Or Not At All
That governance gap extends to how access is enforced in the moment an agent acts. Only 34% of organizations evaluate an AI agent’s authorization at the moment it attempts a specific action. The majority rely on periodic policy reviews or standing permissions set once at provisioning and never revisited, meaning an agent’s access can quietly outlive the task it was originally granted for, and keep working long after anyone signed off on it.
Abandoned Pilots Are Leaving Live Credentials Behind
Additionally, there’s an increasing risk in how enterprises manage agents that don’t make it to production. 31% of agentic AI pilots have been paused indefinitely, discontinued, or abandoned. Many were real deployments with real system access and credentials that were never cleaned up. Every abandoned pilot with live credentials is exposure nobody is actively watching.
External Connectivity Carries the Same Risk
14% of organizations allow AI agents to connect to outside tools and data sources via the Model Context Protocol (MCP) without restriction. Among the majority who do limit those connections to an approved list, fewer than half, just 49%, have a dedicated team actively maintaining and auditing that list on a regular basis.
Christopher M. Steffen, CISSP, CISA, VP of Research at EMA, said: “This research shows enterprises have moved well past experimentation with agentic AI right into production, and governance has not kept pace with that shift. The gap isn’t a lack of awareness; most organizations have policies in place and express real confidence in them. The gap is between what’s written down and what’s enforced when an agent takes an action nobody approved. That disconnect shows up most clearly in how organizations authorize agent actions and monitor them once they’re live, and it’s the reason incidents are happening at a rate the industry hasn’t fully reckoned with.”
Shreyans Mehta, Co-founder and CTO at Cequence, said: “The number that jumped out to me is the 92% being confident in their governance frameworks. Confidence like that is a trap; it’s exactly why organizations stop looking for problems, stop investing in monitoring, and let authorization checks lapse until an incident forces the conversation. This is the exact blind spot Cequence is built to close, giving security teams real-time visibility into what AI agents are actually doing and enforcing authorization at the moment an agent acts, not after the fact.”
Dhruva will adopt the Ryan brand across the UAE and Saudi Arabia by the end of 2026, uniting the practice with Ryan’s global identity and international platform.
Dhruva, a leading tax consultancy firm in the Middle East, and Ryan, a leading global tax services and software provider, today announced that Dhruva will transition to the Ryan brand across the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The rebranding will be completed by the end of 2026, bringing the practice under Ryan’s global identity and reinforcing its position as part of the world’s leading global-scale specialist in business tax.
The transition marks the next phase of the strategic joint venture announced in 2025 and reflects the continued integration of Dhruva’s regional capabilities with Ryan’s global platform, technology, and international resources. Clients across the Middle East will continue to benefit from the same trusted advisory teams, enhanced by access to Ryan’s worldwide expertise and service capabilities.
“The Middle East has been a strategic growth market for us for many years, and we have built a strong advisory practice founded on deep client relationships, technical excellence, and local market understanding,” said Dinesh Kanabar, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Dhruva Advisors and Vice Chairman, Ryan.
“The transition to the Ryan brand marks a significant milestone in our journey and reflects the strength of our partnership. By combining our regional expertise with Ryan’s global scale, technology, and international capabilities, we are creating an even stronger platform to support clients across the region as they navigate an increasingly dynamic and evolving tax landscape.”
“The Middle East is one of the most important growth markets for tax advisory services globally, and we are investing in the region with a long-term view,” said Tom Shave, President of Ryan’s European and Asia-Pacific Operations. “Uniting under the Ryan brand strengthens how we serve clients across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Europe—bringing seamless access to our global expertise, technology, and international resources through one trusted platform. This transition marks an important milestone in our integration and reinforces our commitment to the region’s future.”
Ryan will continue to invest in its Middle East operations, expanding its team, capabilities, and regional presence across key markets, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh. The practice provides comprehensive tax advisory services spanning corporate tax, value-added tax (VAT) and indirect tax, transfer pricing, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) tax structuring, research and development (R&D), and cross-border compliance.
“The response from our clients over the past year has been the clearest validation of this partnership,” said Nimish Goel, Leader, Middle East, Dhruva, a Ryan Affiliate. “From the outset, our teams have been integrating Ryan’s global capabilities in technology, specialized expertise, and best practices into the work we already lead in the region. Adopting the Ryan brand is the natural next step. It is the same people and the same trusted relationships, now carrying the name of the largest Firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes.”
The rebranding will be implemented in phases during the second half of 2026, with signage, visual identity, and digital properties transitioning to the Ryan brand across the region.
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