Yango Tech, B2B technology solutions provider by Yango Group, launches a new business practice focused on developing and deploying autonomous industrial AI agents. These AI agents are designed to execute real operational tasks across customer service, analytics, compliance, and decision-making, serving industries such as fintech, medtech, e-commerce, logistics, smart cities, and the public sector. Yango Tech offers both ready-to-deploy solutions and a customizable platform for building AI agents tailored to the specific needs of each business. This new business direction addresses the rapidly growing demand across the Middle East for scalable AI systems that deliver measurable business impact, as the region accelerates toward a projected $320 billion AI economy by 2030.

AI Agents connect directly to enterprise applications and data sources, including CRM, HR and finance systems, allowing AI to act like digital employees with memory, execution capabilities and built-in security. For governments and enterprises building digital workforces and smart cities, Yango Tech deploys AI employees across customer support, sales, recruitment and debt recovery, delivering 95% first-contact resolution, faster hiring and up to $100K in monthly operational savings. Its Smart City stack enables digital twins, emergency navigation, mobility optimization and real-time urban analytics, helping municipalities accelerate decision-making, improve traffic flow, and reduce energy and operational costs through AI-powered city modelling and dispatch optimization.

In the medical world, Yango Tech reduces physician admin workloads through appointment transcription, smart search across electronic medical records, imaging analysis and AI and BI command centres. The solutions automate documentation, surface unified patient data in seconds, improve diagnostic accuracy and enable clinicians to treat more patients. In financial services, AI functions support front-, middle- and back-office transformation through AI-powered chatbots, smart search, credit scoring, anti-fraud analytics and workflow automation.

Commenting on the launch, Vladimir Razuvaev, Chief Executive at Yango Tech, said: “Enterprises today are under pressure to turn AI into practical outcomes. Our AI Agents were built to help organizations deploy autonomous digital employees that integrate securely into existing systems and deliver measurable productivity gains. With around 84% of GCC organisations adopting AI, the opportunity now lies in execution. Our vision is to help healthcare providers, banks, private firms and cities scale AI responsibly while strengthening performance, transparency and service quality.”

The launch reinforces Yango Tech’s alignment with the UAE’s national innovation agenda and broader regional ambitions for AI-led economic growth, smart infrastructure and digital government. By enabling sovereign deployments, local data control and enterprise-grade security, the platform supports the UAE’s vision for future-ready public services and knowledge-driven economies while helping organizations move faster from strategy to implementation.

Elaborate on Palo Alto Networks’ principles about cybersecurity and speak about the latest solutions

Palo Alto Networks is the world’s cybersecurity leader. We innovate to outpace cyber threats, so organizations can embrace technology with confidence. We provide next-gen cybersecurity to thousands of customers globally, across all sectors. Our best-in-class cybersecurity platforms and services are backed by industry-leading threat intelligence and strengthened by state-of-the-art automation. Whether deploying our products to enable the Zero Trust Enterprise, responding to a security incident, or partnering to deliver better security outcomes through a world-class partner ecosystem, we’re committed to helping ensure each day is safer than the one before. It’s what makes us the cybersecurity partner of choice.

Palo Alto Networks aims to innovate and provide solutions to help its customers. We are the first and only vendor currently offering Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) 2.0, which helps secure connections for businesses with hybrid workforces. ZTNA 2.0 helps organizations protect all applications and data from any location, without compromising access for users. We have recently announced the Prisma SASE to enable customers to identify

Ercan Aydin, VP – Emerging Markets, Palo Alto Networks

and remediate misconfigurations in SaaS apps using SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) capabilities.

What products and solutions will you be showcasing at GITEX Global 2022?

Customers visiting GITEX will be able to see live demos of our best-in-class cybersecurity platforms representing our 3 main security pillars plus our services: Strata (The Networks Security with NGFW and SASE), Cortex (Endpoint security and SoC Automation, Unit42 Incident Response), Prisma Cloud (Cloud Security) and Professional Services.

What types and sizes of enterprises that Palo Alto focuses on?

Palo Alto Networks supports firms of all sizes, from SMEs to multinational organizations. We are neither limited in terms of size nor the capabilities we can support. In addition to firewall support for businesses, Palo Alto Networks also offers cloud solutions. Our mandate is to consistently evolve, creating a safe and secure environment for our customers and partners.

How do you evaluate the way security solution business progresses in the Middle East region?

Technology is advancing rapidly and post the pandemic with continued hybrid work and the accelerating shift to the cloud; the need for a cybersecurity partner has become an even bigger priority. Palo Alto Networks helps deliver what’s next in security to help organizations get ahead of the threat landscape, with broad industry recognition of our best-of-breed platforms: network security, cloud security, and security operations.

The cover story analyses several viewpoints on digital transformation delegating the idea of sustainable transformation. With expert comments, the story helps readers understand how the process can contribute to the collective growth of an organization.

The goal of digital transformation is to achieve seamless business and simplify the workflow of enterprises. However, there are confirmed reports of organizations’ failure in digital transmission. Boston Consulting Group conducted a story and found that 70 percent of digital transformation projects fall short of their goals – even after the leadership of respective companies is aligned to the process.

How does that happen? In simple words, the organizations are neither prepared to transform themselves nor their resources are united to the task!

Not Only Digitally But Also Culturally You Can Transform

Perhaps, digital transformation is inevitable as the competitive nature of the market would push every organization to partly or entirely digitize its business operations. Plus, business growth in the digital economy can depend on the successful adaptation of the latest technologies, i.e., cloud, automation, AI, hybrid work, e-payments, online customer engagements, etc.

While observing, a myriad of information technology (IT) solution providers is recently flocked into the industry – a pandemic phenomenon – to take virtue out of the digital transformation ambitions of businesses. Some are advocating the essentialness of transforming businesses, digitally, to mitigate any crisis in the occurrence of a pandemic-like situation. Getting digitally transformed is a sustainable choice that enterprises, of all sizes, should subscribe to if they wish to chase the newest growth standards. However, it should be done only after defining digitalization goals clearly.

If the goals are not perceivable to any of the department – that handles resources, data, implementation, employees, end-user experience, and, most importantly, coordination – the results could not just be unsatisfactory but also irretrievably disastrous. Thus, digital transformation should be introduced and enforced as a new culture in the organization.

Uncertainties to Opportunities

Despite acquiring momentum – at least a decade ago, the idea of a full-fledged digital transformation had not achieved major space in tech discourses. But today, it is a hot topic that invites huge participation of tech experts, researchers, academics, and students – even critics. It is not a surprise, most often we hear the word resilience tags along with digital transformation and it has a rationale.

When the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic struck the world order, the affected parties, including individuals, corporates, and governments, had to look for feasible options to overcome the crisis. Finally, decision-makers of private and state entities concluded that the intensification and reorientation of technology in all possible sectors could help resolve most of the issues.

Crawford Del Prete, global president at International Data Corporation (IDC), appears to have objectively analyzed the pandemic situation and commented, “the COVID-19 pandemic has thrust us into a digital-first world, where new digital habits are reshaping consumer behavior.” Further continued, “at the same time, end-user organizations are taking a digital-first approach to products, services, customer and employee experiences, and operations.”

Relentless and Cautious Journey for Future Growth and Benefit

Ram Narayanan, Country Manager at Check Point Software Technologies – ME, observes, “digital transformation empowers organizations to expand business opportunities, and increase profitability and efficiency while reducing operational costs.”

Most new-era enterprises are excited about the business opportunities and revenue generation prospects encompass upon adopting the latest technologies or classy solutions available in the market. At the same time, not all of them can identify the deficits of these technologies – until they detect severe vulnerabilities in their system.

The frenzy of digital transformation is somehow perceived as an urgency by many organizations – especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs/SMBs). When economies started to open up, the business-continuity narrators barged into the doors of enterprises with unusual cacophony and advised them to opt for next-level, pandemic-ready systems. Even though there is a sustainable need for pandemic-ready IT systems, the confusion that has created compelled businesses to choose anything bordering the philosophy of digital transformation.

Consequently, even before businesses fully understand the significance of threat intelligence and (or) the legal mandate of data sovereignty and privacy, compliances, and cyber laws, the jeopardy would have taken place in the systems. Ram Narayanan precisely articulates it, “digital transformation can also expose enterprises to a variety of vulnerabilities and challenges that if not properly addressed could result in financial loss, identity theft, and leakage of private and sensitive information.”

Cloud Shows the Way

If institutions choose to embrace the idea of digital transformation, they could ideally begin with moving data to the cloud, investing in cloud-based infrastructure, and installing cloud-native solutions. Uday Shankar Kizhepat, VP and GM – MEA, WSO2 rightly points out, “the cloud has rapidly become an enabler in today’s digital transformation initiatives and plays a crucial role in an organization’s ability to build and implement scalable solutions faster than ever before.”

Besides getting low-cost infrastructure and zero maintenance burden – compared with on-premises data centers- the cloud is limitless as it allows the enterprises to:

• react to the fluctuations in demand
• scale up or down depending on their needs.
• save cost significantly, and
• quickly respond and adapt to changing requirements

Middle East’s Billion Dollar Vision
Shibapriya Saha, Program Manager at Frost & Sullivan precisely points out, “as enterprises in the Middle East move to the cloud-based model, the region will become one of the most profitable markets for global cloud and data center providers. Industry and technology convergence is redefining organizational boundaries, and the focus is on developing innovative, cross-industry business models, such as fintech, edtech, and martech (marketing).”

Similarly, the global technology research firm, IDC also forecasts that the digital transformation spending in the Middle East will accelerate at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.6% over the five years, topping $58 billion in 2025.

The Middle East regions are known for their futuristic approach toward infrastructure and reliance on technology. Evaluating the standards while recovering from the pandemic hit, the region appears to be reshaping the technological paradigm. 5G networks, AI, IoT, future classrooms, and smart cities are clear examples of the growing phenomenon.

Written by: Joe Robertson, Director of information security and EMEA CISO at Fortinet

Digitization is transforming how businesses operate. This transition is often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 because it represents the fourth manufacturing revolution. The first industrial revolution was mechanization, the second was mass production and assembly lines using electricity, and the third was the adoption of computers and automation.

Joe Robertson, Director of information security at Fortinet

Now the Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us, with the digital transformation of businesses largely consisting of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and rapid technological innovation. Industrial processes and machines are becoming smarter and more modular, with automation and data exchange that include the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). These smart, always-connected devices provide real-time contextual information with low overhead to optimize processes and improve how companies and individuals interact, work, and live.

It’s no wonder McKinsey estimated that investments in IoT technology would grow at a rate of 13.5% throughout 2022. This growth in IoT is contributing to an escalating explosion in production and industrial data. This data is being collected and analyzed to improve productivity, monitor activity, and enhance predictive maintenance. With so much business-critical data passing through IoT and IIoT devices, organizations must take measures to secure their technology.

Why is IIoT Security Important?

Digital has not gone unnoticed by cybercriminals, who seek to exploit IoT and IIoT as weak links in the data chain. The increasing volume of structured and unstructured data being generated by these devices, and their oftentimes anomalous behavior spanning across global ecosystems challenges even the best organizations. Further complicating the situation is that many of these devices are wireless (WLAN or 5G) and often have communication channels to their manufacturers for maintenance and troubleshooting purposes, which can make them a potential backdoor into the production network.

Most organizations are not well prepared for IoT and IIoT device vulnerabilities. The ubiquitous interconnectivity among devices, users, and distributed networks presents a substantial challenge for traditional siloed security solutions. Focusing defenses on a single point in the network is becoming increasingly ineffective. The lack of single-view visibility across devices, users, and the entire network creates blind spots that cybercriminals can exploit. According to a study conducted by EY, almost half of enterprises indicate they are concerned about their inability to track security across their IoT and IIoT assets, keep them virus-free, and patch vulnerabilities. This complexity is exacerbated by comingling IIoT devices with wired devices on the same network segments and can lead to uncertainty as to exactly what is connected where.

IoT and IIoT Security Risks to Be Aware Of

From a security perspective, IoT and IIoT devices present several risks. One problem is that most of these devices were not designed with security in mind. Many of them are headless, which means they do not have a traditional operating system or even the memory or processing power required to include security or install a security client. In addition, an alarming number of devices have passwords hard-coded into their firmware.

The result is that many IoT devices cannot be patched or updated. And even when security can be installed on the device, the underlying installed software is often cobbled together from commonly available code or is untested, which means that most installed security tools can be circumvented by exploiting a wide range of known vulnerabilities. Additionally, most IIoT and IoT devices have limited or no configurability. And when devices are compromised, most IT organizations admit they are unlikely to be able to detect the event before it impacts systems and data.

How to Mitigate IoT and IIoT Security Risks

It is important to view IIoT as part of your broader security environment rather than as isolated units. Here are a few additional recommendations for securing this technology:

• Segmentation of the production environment, with all IIoT and wireless devices in segments outside of the SCADA or ICS network. In many cases, micro-segmentation should be performed to further restrict communications between devices to further isolate and confine them to only authorized communications.
• Network Access Control for accurate information on what is connecting to the network and verification of each device’s security posture before allowing it to connect.
• Security must be redesigned to provide seamless visibility on what is happening across all networks and devices, from IoT to multi-cloud networks.
• Because of the minimal intelligence and security functions included in most IIoT devices, an Intrusion Protection System upstream of these devices should be used to detect attacks on known exploits and to provide “virtual patching” of devices that cannot have software updates applied.
• Security monitoring and management must be done through a single console. Enterprises must be able to see all devices, assess risk levels, segment traffic, and assign policies across the entire network in real-time. This should include both production and IT networks to reduce the risk of attacks on IT resources propagating into the production network, and vice-versa.
• Active protection solutions against unknown threats should be deployed, including sandboxing technology (to determine if files, attachments, or other code is malicious or not), and deception technology, (also known as honey pots), to attract attackers, confirm their presence in the network, and expose them to tools to block and eliminate them.
• Zero trust access can provide simple, automatic secure remote access that verifies who and what is on your network and secures application access no matter where users are located.
• Security solutions should automatically adapt to network changes, anticipate threats, interpret and implement business language commands, and interoperate in a cybersecurity mesh architecture to share threat intelligence and proactively coordinate responses to threats across all security devices and network ecosystems.

Going Forward

Unfortunately, IIoT devices are typically not designed with security in mind, and finding ways to secure every device on your network is daunting. Because of this, organizations must take immediate action to protect their systems from attack.

A new generation of tools is helping organizations meet today’s ever-expanding attack surface, delivering not only visibility of the network environment, but also enforcement and dynamic policy control. Whether devices are connecting from inside or outside the network, they can automatically respond to compromised devices or anomalous activity.

Fortinet has developed products, services, and tools that directly meet the operational and regulatory requirements of industrial and manufacturing networks. The expansive Fortinet Security Fabric platform offers a cybersecurity mesh architecture approach that includes centralized management and a unified context-aware security policy that provides complete visibility and granular control over the entire organization.

Explain how Uniphore products work in terms of Conversational Automation, and how enterprises can make use of this.

Uniphore is a conversational automation company. If you look at how conversations, and the way organizations have been built over the years – the heart of organizations has been their ERP systems, their finance systems, or their HR systems. But if you look at what really encapsulates an organization, it is the conversations that happen, both within the company and externally, with their vendors, customers and partners. At Uniphore, we believe that conversations are a company’s most valuable asset. What we do therefore is to provide a framework wherein AI and natural language processing (NLP) can be applied to a company’s conversational data to enhance engagements, both internally and externally.

Ravi Saraogi, Co-founder & President-APAC at Uniphore

Our current focus is on providing an integrated conversational service platform which combines conversational AI, workflow automation, robotic process automation (RPA), and low-code and no-code capabilities, all wrapped up with a business-friendly user interface (UI). Our goal is to transform and democratize exceptional customer experiences.

Customer experience really takes shape in the Contact Center. Uniphore enables businesses to empower their contact center employees to deliver highly personalized, empathetic customer interactions which elevate the overall experience. The solutions we deliver include U-Self Serve which helps drive customer engagement across channels like IVR, web and mobile, and reduces the cost of customer service. Once the conversation moves to an agent, we enable authentication which is especially essential now as agents work remotely. This is made possible by U-Trust which delivers frictionless agent verification to increase customer trust. It can verify agents effectively and reduce contact center fraud. As the customer converses with the agent, our third product, U-Assist steps in to give the agent real-time analytics that drive compliance, facilitate cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, address consistency and churn with knowledge management and most importantly enable agents to be more empathetic. In this way, U-Assists effectively guides the agent throughout the entire interaction and on completion, automatically summarizes and documents the entire conversation, drastically reducing post-call work. Finally, U-Analyze makes it possible for 100% of interactions to be monitored and analyzed for details such as soft skills, compliance, churn, and cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. In this way, Uniphore delivers a platform upon which our products address the entire lifecycle of customer conversation – from an automated channel, to authentication, to live service, and finally to post-factor.

How can automation be tailored to the needs of each organization from different market segments?

Uniphore caters to a US$500 billion customer service industry and therefore has deployments across multiple verticals. By virtue of this, we have amassed a lot of learning and industry specific insights. Consider for example a typical request to a bank such as ensure the customer’s credit card will work during an overseas trip. Between navigating the IVR, speaking to an agent, and the agent subsequently making the required updates to the system, this interaction is likely to take no less than 10-12 minutes. But if Uniphore has been deployed, then instead of the IVR, the customer can speak in native language to a bot which connects them more efficiently and conveniently to an agent. Then as the customer relays the request to the agent, RPA processes automatically populate forms, allowing the agent to fulfill the request with just a single click. So, what would have otherwise taken the agent multiple forms, is instead completed via an RPA in mere milliseconds. In addition, our solution actively monitors the conversation in real-time to identify up-selling opportunities – in this example, it could be the possibility of offering a travel insurance package, or a preferential Forex rate. In this way, with Uniphore a customer journey which could have taken upwards of 12 minutes can be completed in under 3 minutes, with the added benefit of potential cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.

What verticals does Uniphore focus on other than Banking?

Ravi: Within in financial services industry, we also serve other non-banking service providers such as mortgage providers, and many of the world’s leading insurance companies. Beyond BFSI, we serve the telecoms sector – with many of the largest service providers across the globe being Uniphore customers – and the healthcare market. Of course, BPOs are another large focus for Uniphore wherein we don’t only sell to them, but also sell our services through these organizations. In addition, we also have a big customer-base in the eCommerce, Ed-Tech, and hospitality segments.

What is the typical size and scale of organizations that Uniphore serves – is it just large enterprises or also the SME segment?

Any organization that has a contact center has the potential to benefit from Uniphore’s products. In the Middle East, where the cost of contact centers is higher than in markets such as India or the Philippines, any organization that has over 150 contact center seats would be a suitable candidate for Uniphore solutions.

That said, we have a very strong penetration into the enterprise space. Globally, Uniphore works with 6 out of the top 10 BPOs, 3 out of the top 5 telcos, and between 70% to 80% of Fortune 500 companies.

Could you please tell us about your presence in the Middle East and your strategy for the region in the coming year?

Ravi:  In the Middle East, we have a strong partner focus as we sell through our partners, and alliances. Of course, we also have a team that is based in the Middle East that is headquartered in the UAE and has a local presence in countries across the MENA including Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

We have signed partnerships with the largest BPOs, leading consultancy firms, local value-added providers and technology vendors who are global in nature but also have a strong presence in the Middle East.

Can you talk about the deployment model for Uniphore’s platform?

Uniphore’s products are end-to-end SaaS based. Having said that, in dealing with large enterprises, we also understand that not every entity is ready to run their solutions in the cloud. So, we offer the flexibility of on-premise deployment delivered within the subscription model. Depending on their complexity, our deployments typically range anywhere between two to three weeks, to two to three months and the solution then runs seamlessly without significant management overheads. In addition, if a customer requires any managed services, system management, or environment management, then we have additional services which can be consumed by our customers.

Given the stringent data handling policies we see in many countries, how does Uniphore manage data?

Ravi: First, by virtue of dealing with large enterprises, Uniphore’s technology and hosting stacks are fully compliant with certifications that include PCI DSS, ISO 27001, HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC 1, and SOC 2. Second, from a data security perspective, if required, we deliver our solutions on-prem in the customer’s environment. This means all their data resides within their own infrastructure. Or if it is hosted in the cloud, then that hosting is done within the country, so the data still resides within the geography. This is made possible by our global partners with the largest of cloud service providers which are also present in the Middle East market.

In terms of security, do you have a fool-proof system to ensure the security of data on solutions that you deploy in customers private environments?

Because we work with the largest of enterprises, we cannot deploy our solutions unless they meet all compliance requirements and certifications. Maintaining data sanctity is absolutely crucial to our deliveries.

Today, Uniphore processes hundreds of thousands of interactions on a daily basis. When you process this volume of data, that often has sensitive customer data, it’s easy to see why security is paramount to everything we do.

Richard Karam, General Manager at CME Sweden said, “Continuing our international expansion is key to servicing the needs of our clients, and having a foothold in Stockholm puts us in a better position to support market participants in Europe. Sweden is a key international hub for digital transformation, and our office here will enable us to deliver our ever-expanding range of solutions to our growing key client segments in Scandinavia.”

CME is currently concentrating on customer experience, process automation, data management, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things. The new phase of its expansion in Europe will support organizations and businesses in the Nordic countries to achieve their digital transformation goals at a different stage of the digital value chain from strategy to technology and operations.

CME claims have delivered more than 250 innovative projects across the world. With the official office opening in Stockholm, CME now has offices in seven countries including China, India, UAE, and the USA.

COVER STORY

The significance of artificial intelligence (AI) is being accepted across industries. The cover story examines how does AI influence financial, logistics, hospitality, education, and other sectors.

On January 23, 2020, almost immediately after CNN reported the confirmation of the first Coronavirus case in Washington, United States, Diana J. Flaherty, a Huston-based entrepreneur, wanted to cancel her entire Singapore itinerary, scheduled for the first week of February. After several hours of tiring attempts, her flight, hotel bookings, and transfers got canceled. She had called and emailed travel agents, transfer service providers, and third parties to get the job completed.

None of the chatbots, IVR interactions, or online ticketing services, which she reached out responded appropriately – the time difference between countries added more stress to the job.

Now; two years later, intelligent IVR assistants, conversational automation systems, AI-powered chatbots, and data processing tools automated not just the travel booking process but nearly 70 percent of the customer-business engagements ranging from inquiry to service delivery, from issue registration to technical support, and from itinerary design to meeting schedules, and more.

Pandemic-Ready IT Systems and Hybrid Work

Even though most of these technologies have existed back then, their implementation has been fast-tracked due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cost, reduced workforce, travel restrictions, and several other constraints have forced enterprises to invest in technology that reduces human involvement. Besides building pandemic-ready IT systems, most enterprises have permanently shifted to hybrid work mode and most of them are functioning with less than 25 percent of their workforce from offices.

It is already proven that the abilities of AI are incredible and beyond imaginable limits especially when it collaborates with human intelligence and thought processes. While solution providers accelerate the potential of their tools with the help of AI, cybercriminals use AI systems to infiltrate into both public and private networks. Most of the cyberattacks recently reported are facilitated by AI-powered agents and applications.

Traditionally, AI remained as a classy technology stood only by commercial segments that demanded quick return on investments (ROI). But when the unrelenting rampage of COVID-19 variants impacted nearly all verticals, the idea of creating resilience with modern technologies had popped up. Since then, the healthcare, research, and drug sectors started to get benefits out of AI.

Dr. Jassim Haji, President at International Group of Artificial Intelligence articulated, “the use of AI in healthcare wasn’t adequate and much less compared with commercial verticals especially in modern societies, such as the United States, China, and Europe. Had there been the modern technologies used efficiently in hospitals, research labs, patient care units, and drug development centers earlier, we could have saved many lives that the COVID-19 pandemic claimed.” Read his exclusive interview.

Referring to the early trends, positive impacts such as enhanced customer engagement and revenue growth have been witnessed in some of the key sectors including finance, manufacturing, aviation, hospitality, and logistics.

Unlocked Revenue Growth in Finance

Finance Institutions believe in the potential of AI. Hence, they started using AI-driven solutions for reducing operating expenses and automating intensive processes. Eventually, it led to revenue growth. A survey by NVIDIA titled “State of AI in Financial Services,” also showed a substantial financial impact of AI for enterprises with 34% of those who replied agreeing that AI will increase their company’s annual revenue by at least 20%.

FinTech and investment firms use AI for the following benefits:

• Algorithmic trading
• Fraud detection
• Improved productivity
• End-to-end trading infrastructure
• Anti-money laundering (AML) and KYC
• Accurate insurance policies
• Automated call centers
• Risk assessment and management

Robots Replace Workforces in Logistic Sector

The logistic sector had a major setback due to the pandemic. The entire supply-chain process got tarnished due to worldwide lockdowns and the absence of workers – the crisis was visible even to transfer medical supplies between countries. Solutions providers considering the option of replacing workers with robots, introducing self-driving cars, automation in documentation, inventory, warehouse, and clearance processes.

In the logistic sector, AI-powered systems are calibrated for:

• Big data analysis
• Better demand prediction
• Planning and resources management
• Real-time route optimization
• Warehouse automation
• Product inspection

Dynamic Pricing Options in Hospitality Sector

Hospitality probably conducts an increased amount of customer engagements and it is higher than most other sectors. Thus, automation and AI implementation have been done focusing on offering customers a unique experience.

Eg.,

• Chatbots and virtual assistants: Commonly used to handle inquiry and complaints
• Apps and sophisticated UIs: Provide hassle-free booking and easy cancellation
• Revision of customer reviews: AI-powered applications can evaluate customer reviews that help organizations learn better customer handling
• Prediction and data analysis: Customers are offered dynamic pricing based on their engagements

The market intelligence firm IDC estimated the adoption of AI up to 70 percent by online travel agencies and 60 percent by hotels, worldwide before 2020. The prediction of SITA, an IT solutions provider to the air transport industry, was hinted about the investments in AI and machine learning (ML)-based programs by 52 percent of airlines and 45 percent of airports by 2021.

Robot Teachers and On-Demand Tutoring

AI-powered solutions influenced EdTech space for some time. Studies predict nearly all learning management tools will be enabled with AI capabilities in the coming years and that will be a complete transformation of the education sector worldwide. Plus, AI gives a completely different perspective of education not only to students and teachers but also to parents and institutions. When experts predict it as the future of education, the following are the merits of AI in education:

• Personalized learning programs
• On-demand tutoring using AI chatbots
• 24/7 learning from anywhere
• Better time management and task division for teachers

Conclusion

AI and ML are on the scope of defining the future for individuals, groups, organizations, industries, professional sectors, and governments. Robots outperform the existing workforce across the planet, in a decade or less, and there is almost nothing they can’t do in terms of labor. While there are positive and productive impacts, there could be, certainly, adverse impacts as well. Experts forecast massive job losses, unlawful cyber activities, cyberwarfare, etc. Therefore, active intervention of governments in both the implementation and the practice of technology is highly desired. Governments should deliberate schemes for employment protection and social cohesion (e.g., universal basic income (UBI). Simultaneously, states should encourage AI groups, societies, and think tanks to join forums and engage in regular conversations for value exchanges to have the future bright for everyone!

Stronger security controls reduce risk

The latest Secret Server release allows organizations to rotate Secret Server’s master encryption key on demand. Rotating individual secrets housed within the digital vault provides an additional layer of protection to block external actors from gaining access to it.

“Our continued focus on decreasing the steps required to safeguard secrets reduces the workload on security administrators and the attack surface area,” said Jon Kuhn, SVP of Product Management at ThycoticCentrify. “As an example, our master encryption key rotation capability is simple to implement and provides an additional layer of protection to block external actors from gaining access to all the other keys stored on the platform.”

Checkout enhancements remove bottlenecks

To enhance auditing and compliance, Secret Server ensures that only one privileged user at a time can use a secret. When secrets aren’t checked back into Secret Server after use, critical maintenance operations can’t be performed and productivity slows. The latest release automatically checks in secrets for API connections after expiration. Additionally, users now have more visibility into remaining time on a secret checkout and can extend the checkout if required.

The latest release also includes enhancements to the Secret Server interface, logging, and reporting to increase usability and accessibility through improved keyboard navigation and screen reader hints.

The following are the predictions made by Danny Allan:

Acquisitions will stagnate as company valuations outstrip available assets

In 2021, global M&A activity reached new highs aided by low-interest rates and high stock prices. In 2022, we will see that momentum shift. Larger acquisitions will be few and far between as company valuations continue to rise. Only well-established, cash-rich companies will have the money required to make new purchases. The higher purchase threshold will make it harder for medium- and small-sized companies to grow and evolve, giving the advantage to larger, established firms.

Danny Allan, CTO and Senior VP of Product Strategy

AI and automation will replace entry-level jobs in the finance, healthcare, legal and software industries

The talent shortage will leave many jobs unfilled, making way for the advancement of artificial intelligence and automation to fill new roles. We have seen technology begin its takeover in the service industry with the introduction of robotic waiters during the pandemic. In 2022, we will see AI and automation capable of filling positions in other hard-hit sectors like the finance, healthcare, legal, and software industries. These developments will mostly affect entry-level positions, such as interns, making it harder for recent graduates entering the workforce to gain job experience in the future.

Tech’s labor market will be met with big money and big challenges  

The COVID-19 economy – and the subsequent great resignation – throughout the last two years certainly made its mark in the tech industry. As we continue to see turnover and lower employee retention, tech salaries will begin to grow in 2022 to incentivize talent to stay. I see this causing an interesting dynamic, presenting bigger challenges, especially to the folks in the startup and VC world. The bigger tech giants are the ones who can meet the high dollar demand and deliver benefits for a competitive workforce. It will be interesting to see in the years ahead what this does for innovation, which tends to come from the hungry startups where people work for very little for a long time. We could very well see a resurgence of tech talent returning to the “old guard” companies to meet their needs for stable (and large) salaries, forgoing the competitive, hard-knocks of startups that could cause skills and talent gap that lasts for years to come.

New privacy-focused legislation will shift attention to data sovereignty clouds

With increased focus on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulating data protection and privacy in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) enhancing privacy rights and consumer protection for Californians, other states and countries are facing pressure to enact comprehensive data privacy legislation. As this continues in 2022, I expect we’ll see much more focus on data sovereignty clouds to keep data within nations or a certain physical location. This is a far more specified cloud model that we’re starting to see in EMEA with Gaia-X. Some will see this as an obstacle, but once implemented, this will be a good thing as it puts consumer privacy at the core of the business strategy.

Containers will become mainstream to support the cloud explosion of 2021

Businesses wrongly predicted that employees would return to the office, as normal, in 2021. Instead, remote working continued, and companies were forced to develop long-term remote working strategies to ensure efficiency, sustainability and to retain employees seeking flexibility. This remote work strategy demanded cloud-based solutions, resulting in an explosion of cloud service adoption. To meet this moment, containers will become mainstream in 2022, making the generational shift to the cloud much easier and more streamlined for organizations.

The following are the predictions made by Claude Schuck:

Every enterprise in the Middle East looking to build a strategy around Modern Data Protection should keep the three important pillars in mind – Cloud, Security, and Containers. Businesses need to have a good understanding of what the cloud brings to an organization and why it is important. Secondly, before the pandemic, we had a centralized office where employees were all in one place. With decentralization now, the boundaries of the organization have become invisible. Data is all over the place, necessitating a need for a comprehensive security strategy to safeguard all entry points. And finally, we see an increased interest in Kubernetes as a critical piece of an enterprise’s cloud infrastructure. This has created a new area around container-native data protection that needs addressing.

Claude Schuck, Regional Director – Middle East

Accelerated adoption of Cloud technologies

Although the cloud is not yet mainstream in the region, adoption is expected to witness significant growth in the Middle East as enterprises begin to “trust” in-country offerings with the big public cloud players like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services that have opened data centers in the Middle East. Gartner forecasts end-user spending on public cloud services in the MENA region to grow 19% in 2022. Another big trend we see is that many governments across the Middle East are creating their own ‘Government Cloud’ to have control over their data and not letting it reside in the public realm. With this acceleration, Veeam is investing in more headcount in the region to be able to assist organizations as they transition to the cloud.

Security – cybercrime

In the Middle East, security will always be a top priority. Not only can cyberattacks affect day-to-day business, impact revenue, and create other problems, but above all, it affects the brand reputation and workforce. Enterprises will continue to invest and safeguard themselves against the ever-growing increase in cyberattacks, especially ransomware. Although organizations in the Middle East, in general, spend a lot on security technologies, there is a huge gap when it comes to planning and executing a security strategy. This mainly boils down to the complexity of the IT environment. There are still a lot of legacy systems. Protecting these complicated environments is a big challenge and becomes even more so in the transition phase of moving to the cloud. Regional CISOs need to have a stringent security program in place which includes important elements like stress testing of IT Systems, backups, a disaster recovery strategy, and educating employees to become the first line of defense for improving organizational resilience

Security – data privacy and protection

In early September 2021, the UAE announced the introduction of a new federal data protection law. With this, data privacy and security are set to take center stage as consumers demand transparency and their “right” to be forgotten. By having the option of opting out, consumers can ensure that their data is being handled correctly and they are not targeted by organizations. But more importantly, international corporations that are based in the UAE and the Middle East can be assured that policies are being applied when it comes to data in-country – whether it be in terms of the way data is stored, IP is managed or how customer and consumer data is protected

Digital transformation powers ahead thanks to Containers

The rapid adoption of Containers in enterprises, the need for on-demand resources, and the flexibility of workloads will drive digital transformation. The Lack of skilled resources and understanding of the technology is a big challenge for enterprises in the Middle East. Veeam, through its acquisition of Kasten, is simplifying container strategy and delivering the industry’s leading Cloud Data Management platform that supports data protection for container-based applications built-in Kubernetes environments.

The live event was focused on showcasing the brilliance of these robots in improving efficiencies through AI technology, reducing operating costs, and simplifying processes. Representatives from Proven Robotics and Pudu Robotics discussed the growth of robotics in the region, and the role of AI and robots in Saudi Arabia’s ambitious drive towards making automation and artificial intelligence a core pillar in the nation’s economic development strategy.

Visitors attending the Riyadh Season 2021-22 were able to watch demos for Kettybot, Bellabot, and Pudubot, robots that were developed to transform the operational landscape and improve efficiency. Bellabot robot was designed to revolutionize the human-robot interactive system, helping make manual tasks in customer-servicing obsolete; while Kettybot and Pudubot are service delivery robots and can act as a utility assistant in several industries.

“There is an increasing demand for robotics across many industries, and this demand is expected to rise, driven by the introduction of new technologies, a growing need for automation fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need for contactless and automated interactions. We are committed to working with our customers to deliver solutions that match their needs, helping them stay competitive and relevant in an ever-evolving digital era,” said Zaid Al Mashari Group CEO of Proven Arabia.