The UAE has emerged as one of the region’s most active AI economies, with enterprises showing a strong appetite for AI-led transformation. According to IDC, AI ranks among the country’s top digital investment priorities, with 78% of UAE organizations expected to increase AI and digital investments in 2026. The current geopolitical scenario, however, introduces a more complex operating environment shaped by greater cost pressure, risk sensitivity, and increased scrutiny of investment decisions.
For CIOs, the focus now is on sustaining AI momentum and delivering measurable business value amid increasing uncertainty. In today’s environment, business and technology leaders must not only justify AI investments but also ensure their AI strategies are resilient in the face of operational, economic, and geopolitical disruption.
Join us for this exclusive IDC Virtual AI Roadshow to explore how UAE organizations can continue advancing their AI agendas while responding to rising geopolitical uncertainty and a more demanding investment climate. Led by IDC’s top analysts and grounded in IDC’s extensive research on the impact of the current crisis, this session will dive deep into:
Prioritize AI Deployments with Measurable ROI
Revalidate Cloud and Infrastructure Resilience
Strengthen Cyber Readiness
Reassess Data Governance, Sovereignty, and Compliance
Modernize Data Platforms for AI Readiness
Diversify Technology Supply Chains
AI is raising the bar for enterprise infrastructure. IDC keynote session will explore the evolution from traditional datacentres to purpose-built AI factories, examining how compute, cloud, and facilities must adapt to meet the scale, performance, and economics of the agentic enterprise.
Matt Eastwood
SVP, World Wide Research, IDC
As organizations accelerate AI adoption, safeguarding sensitive data while maintaining regulatory compliance and operational trust has become a strategic priority. This session explores how confidential AI frameworks and infrastructure-level controls are enabling enterprises and public sector organizations to securely process, govern, and protect sovereign data across hybrid and cloud environments.
The discussion will examine the role of confidential computing, encryption-in-use, secure enclaves, access governance, and policy-driven infrastructure in building trusted AI environments that align with national data sovereignty mandates. Attendees will gain insights into how organizations can unlock AI innovation while ensuring critical data remains protected, compliant, and under sovereign control.
Eng. Taha M. Khalifa
General Manager (MEA), Intel Corporation
Markus Leberecht
Principal Engineer, Member of the EMEA Chief Technology Office, Intel Germany
As AI adoption accelerates across industries, intelligence must scale seamlessly from the device to the edge and into the cloud. In this session, we explore how Qualcomm is enabling this new computing paradigm through a unified, end‑to‑end platform that delivers performance, efficiency, and scalability across the compute continuum .
Attendees will gain insight into Qualcomm’s device‑to‑edge‑to‑cloud strategy, including how its AI compute platforms support real‑world deployments across enterprise, cloud, and regulated environments. The session will highlight live implementations, ecosystem partnerships, and roadmap evolution, demonstrating how Qualcomm is helping customers and partners scale intelligence reliably, securely, and efficiently everywhere.
Charles Chebli
Managing Director UAE and Head of AI Cloud MEA, Qualcomm
Mark Hailes
Co-founder & CTO, D Station
As organizations accelerate their AI initiatives, the challenge is no longer limited to experimentation — it is about scaling AI responsibly across the enterprise. This session will explore how CIOs are building governance frameworks that balance innovation with trust, ensuring AI adoption remains secure, ethical, compliant, and aligned with business objectives.
Agentic AI is already taking root across UAE enterprises. According to IDC, 76% of organizations are either testing or significantly investing in it. But scaling from early wins to enterprise-wide impact requires navigating real complexity: governance demands, infrastructure constraints, and a geopolitical environment that continues to reshape priorities.
This session explores what it truly takes to build an agentic enterprise that delivers at scale, with confidence.
Harish Dunakhe
Senior Research Director, Software & Cloud (META), IDC
SVP, World Wide Research
IDC
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Senior Research Director, Software & Cloud (META)
IDC
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General Manager (MEA)
Intel Corporation
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Principal Engineer, Member of the EMEA Chief Technology Office
Intel Germany
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SVP MEA
SecurityHQ
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Co-founder & CTO
D Station
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Managing Director UAE and Head of AI Cloud MEA
Qualcomm
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Matt Eastwood is Senior Vice President of IDC’s enterprise infrastructure, cloud, telecom, security, developers, channels and enabling technology research groups. Mr. Eastwood and his team research people, process and technology trends affecting the enterprise technology marketplace worldwide. Mr. Eastwood first joined IDC in 2000 as part of the server team and his responsibilities have evolved and expanded during his tenure. In his current role, he leads a team of more than 100 analysts providing insights and analysis to IT suppliers, buyers, investors, and distributors through more than 75 syndicated research programs. Mr. Eastwood also leads IDC’s BuyerView primary research programs which are focused on defining emerging trends in cloud, developers, service providers, edge, AI and security.
Mr. Eastwood joined IDC in 2000. He provides in-depth market analysis, research, and consulting on all aspects of the enterprise infrastructure marketplace to IT professionals, investors, resellers and technology suppliers. During his tenure at IDC, Mr. Eastwood has led IDC primary research focused on emerging trends in enterprise systems and data centers. This primary research allows IDC to make continuous assessments regarding how customers are deploying and using enterprise infrastructure power digital transformation. Recent topics covered in Mr. Eastwood’s research include: Software Defined Infrastructure, Integrated infrastructure, Convergence, Disaggregated Infrastructure, Virtualization & Automation, Cloud Computing, High Availability, Platform Migration and Datacenter Workloads. Mr. Eastwood also serves as IDC’s lead analyst covering Dell and VMware.
Prior to joining IDC, Mr. Eastwood worked for twelve years as a senior project manager and environmental consultant at CDM Smith in Boston. Mr. Eastwood was responsible for managing the planning and design of large environmental infrastructure projects including wastewater collection and treatment facilities. In addition, Mr. Eastwood served as Operations Manager of the firm’s New England practice.
Mr. Eastwood received a bachelor’s degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston and earned his MS in Engineering Project Management from WPI in Worcester, MA. He is a Registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Massachusetts.
AI is raising the bar for enterprise infrastructure. IDC keynote session will explore the evolution from traditional datacentres to purpose-built AI factories, examining how compute, cloud, and facilities must adapt to meet the scale, performance, and economics of the agentic enterprise.
Harish Dunakhe leads IDC’s research & advisory practice for the software program in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey (META) region.
He is responsible for a team of research analysts and manages the delivery of insights in IDC’s software program and syndicated research. Harish and his team have expertise in studying technology trends to provide our clients with thought leadership and actionable insights. He is based in Dubai.
Harish has a strong understanding of leveraging technologies to solve business problems in the public sector, travel & transportation, hospitality, IT, and retail. He has significant knowledge of emerging technologies such as blockchain, RPA, artificial intelligence, and cloud. He works with clients to understand the intricacies, opportunities, and challenges involved in their technology transformation journeys.
Harish brings more than 17 years of experience working with leading system integrators and other technology companies across the Middle East, South Asia, and India. Prior to joining IDC, he held senior roles spanning technology sales strategy, program governance, and large account business planning at Global MNCs such as Wipro, DXC Technology, and Sonata Software.
Agentic AI is already taking root across UAE enterprises. According to IDC, 76% of organizations are either testing or significantly investing in it. But scaling from early wins to enterprise-wide impact requires navigating real complexity: governance demands, infrastructure constraints, and a geopolitical environment that continues to reshape priorities.
This session explores what it truly takes to build an agentic enterprise that delivers at scale, with confidence.
Eng. Taha M. Khalifa leads Intel’s Middle East and Africa operations, driving the region’s digital transformation through strategic technology innovation. With over two decades at Intel, he partners with governments, industry pioneers, and technology leaders to architect the future of AI-enabled computing across MEA. His vision centers on democratizing advanced technologies — from edge to cloud — that unlock economic growth and societal progress. Throughout his career spanning the U.S., EMEA, and MENA, Taha has championed breakthrough solutions in engineering, go-to-market strategy, and ecosystem development, positioning the region as an emerging hub for scalable, responsible AI innovation.
As organizations accelerate AI adoption, safeguarding sensitive data while maintaining regulatory compliance and operational trust has become a strategic priority. This session explores how confidential AI frameworks and infrastructure-level controls are enabling enterprises and public sector organizations to securely process, govern, and protect sovereign data across hybrid and cloud environments.
The discussion will examine the role of confidential computing, encryption-in-use, secure enclaves, access governance, and policy-driven infrastructure in building trusted AI environments that align with national data sovereignty mandates. Attendees will gain insights into how organizations can unlock AI innovation while ensuring critical data remains protected, compliant, and under sovereign control.
Markus Leberecht has spent his career at Intel holding a variety of individual and managerial roles in technical sales since joining the company in June 2006. He is member of the EMEA Chief Technology Office as a specialist in cloud service provider infrastructure and its security. He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Technology, Munich, Germany, an MSEE from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
As organizations accelerate AI adoption, safeguarding sensitive data while maintaining regulatory compliance and operational trust has become a strategic priority. This session explores how confidential AI frameworks and infrastructure-level controls are enabling enterprises and public sector organizations to securely process, govern, and protect sovereign data across hybrid and cloud environments.
The discussion will examine the role of confidential computing, encryption-in-use, secure enclaves, access governance, and policy-driven infrastructure in building trusted AI environments that align with national data sovereignty mandates. Attendees will gain insights into how organizations can unlock AI innovation while ensuring critical data remains protected, compliant, and under sovereign control.
Aaron is the Senior Vice President for the Middle East and Africa, leading Advisory Services at SecurityHQ. With over a decade of cybersecurity experience, he has worked across sectors including financial services, retail, insurance, government, and telecommunications. A GIAC Certified Defence Analyst (GCDA), Aaron brings deep expertise in incident response, threat hunting, vulnerability management, security operations, threat intelligence, and cybersecurity consultancy. He is dedicated to helping organisations enhance resilience and navigate today’s evolving cyber threat landscape.
Mark Hailes is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Dstation, serving as the technical visionary who drives the strategy and engineering behind the company’s most complex builds. Specializing in architecting highly scalable digital products, Mark has fostered a culture of engineering leadership that balances cutting-edge innovation with architectural stability. By seamlessly bridging the gap between high-level business goals and robust technical execution, he ensures that every solution built is inherently future-proof. Under his technical stewardship, Dstation delivers resilient, forward-thinking platforms engineered to scale seamlessly alongside their partner’s evolving business needs.
Charles Chebli is a senior executive operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, sovereign cloud, and national digital transformation strategies across the Middle East and Africa.
As Managing Director UAE and Head of AI Cloud MEA at Qualcomm, he leads the regional strategy to position AI as a core economic and infrastructure layer, driving large-scale partnerships with governments, sovereign entities, and global technology leaders to enable next-generation AI ecosystems.
Charles brings a proven track record of building and scaling strategic businesses from inception to multi-billion-dollar impact. During his career, he established and grew one of the region’s most critical AI companies into a global top-tier portfolio, delivering significant revenue growth while shaping the foundations of sovereign AI infrastructure.
He is recognized for his ability to translate emerging technologies into board-level value creation, advising on AI investment strategy, infrastructure economics, and ecosystem development. Through his work, he has contributed in a practical way to the Gulf region’s evolving AI journey, in line with national efforts on economic diversification and digital sovereignty.
Charles holds a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence for Public Services, and is a frequent advisor and speaker on AI as critical infrastructure, enterprise transformation, and the future of intelligent economies.
As AI adoption accelerates across industries, intelligence must scale seamlessly from the device to the edge and into the cloud. In this session, we explore how Qualcomm is enabling this new computing paradigm through a unified, end‑to‑end platform that delivers performance, efficiency, and scalability across the compute continuum .
Attendees will gain insight into Qualcomm’s device‑to‑edge‑to‑cloud strategy, including how its AI compute platforms support real‑world deployments across enterprise, cloud, and regulated environments. The session will highlight live implementations, ecosystem partnerships, and roadmap evolution, demonstrating how Qualcomm is helping customers and partners scale intelligence reliably, securely, and efficiently everywhere.
Across conversations with security and industry leaders across the GCC & the EU, what one finds impacting most Security leaders is that they are not resource-poor, they are choice-rich and time-starved.
Intel creates world-changing technology that powers computing globally. As a trusted performance leader, Intel empowers the AI era through hardware, software, and open ecosystems – bringing AI from client to cloud to edge. Through advances in semiconductors, platforms, and manufacturing innovation, Intel drives scalable progress that enriches lives worldwide.
Qualcomm relentlessly innovates to deliver intelligent computing everywhere, helping the world tackle some of its most important challenges. Building on our 40 years of technology leadership in creating era-defining breakthroughs, we deliver a broad portfolio of solutions built with our leading-edge AI, high-performance, low-power computing, and unrivaled connectivity. Our Snapdragon® platforms power extraordinary consumer experiences, and our Qualcomm Dragonwing™ products empower businesses and industries to scale to new heights. Together with our ecosystem partners, we enable next-generation digital transformation to enrich lives, improve businesses, and advance societies. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.
Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering and research and development functions and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business. Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patents are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.
DStation is a data governance and maturity orchestration partner serving organisations across Saudi Arabia and the GCC.
As AI, automation, and advanced analytics accelerate, many organisations face a growing challenge: technology adoption is moving faster than governance maturity. This creates what we call the Governance Gap.
DStation works with enterprises, regulated organisations, and digital transformation leaders to strengthen data governance frameworks, align technology infrastructure with regulatory expectations, and embed governance directly into operational systems rather than policy documents.
Our focus is helping organisations move from periodic compliance exercises to continuous operational readiness, improving data maturity, accountability, and trust.
In an AI-driven economy, data is no longer just an asset. It is capital, currency, and the foundation of digital sovereignty.
DStation’s product is launching summer of 2026 with a mission to help organisations turn regulatory intent into operational certainty.
Cohesity protects, secures, and provides insights into the world’s data. As the leader in AI-powered data security, Cohesity helps organizations strengthen resilience, accelerate recovery, and reduce IT costs. With Zero Trust security and advanced AI/ML, Cohesity Data Cloud is trusted by customers in more than 140 countries, including 70% of the Global 500. Cohesity is also backed by industry leaders such as NVIDIA, Amazon, Google, IBM, Cisco, and HPE.
Cohesity is certified as a Great Place to Work in multiple countries. Follow Cohesity on LinkedIn and visit www.cohesity.com to learn more.
SAS is a global leader in data and AI, helping organizations make trusted, explainable decisions in complex and regulated environments. For nearly 50 years, SAS has partnered with governments and enterprises worldwide, embedding governance, transparency, and accountability into analytics and AI to power decisions that stand up to scrutiny.
SecurityHQ is a technology-agnostic MSSP that designs and architects custom security solutions to fit your environment’s specific needs. Whether that includes fully managing your security program or filling in well-defined gaps, we serve as an extension of your security team and give you the essential elements you need to protect your organization: time and insights.
With bespoke managed services ranging from 24/7 MDR to threat and risk advisory to proactive security posture management, our 450+ SOC Analysts and Engineers detect and remediate threats with a 62% lower noise-to-signal ratio than competitors.
Denodo is a global leader in data management, powering trustworthy AI agents and applications. The Denodo Platform, an award-winning logical data management solution, transforms enterprise data into reliable insights for AI, analytics, and self-service initiatives. Organizations worldwide use Denodo to deliver AI-ready, business-ready data in a fraction of the time compared to traditional data lakehouses, achieving up to 4x faster time-to-insight, 345% ROI, and 10x better performance.
ManageEngine is a division of Zoho Corporation and a leading provider of IT management solutions for organizations across the world. With a powerful, flexible, and AI-powered digital enterprise management platform, we help businesses get their work done from anywhere and everywhere – better, safer, and faster. To learn more, visit www.manageengine.com