Registration & Networking

Beyond Reality Begins Here

Begin IDC CIO Summit 2026 by stepping beyond the expected. Internationally acclaimed mentalists and Golden Buzzer winners from America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent, James & Marina, open the Summit with a captivating fusion of mind-reading, illusion, and immersive audience interaction.

The experience continues throughout the program, as James & Marina return as Summit hosts—infusing the agenda with their signature mentalism and magnetic presence to energize every moment of the event.

IDC Welcome Address

Jyoti Lalchandani

Head of WW Events & MD – META, Central Asia, India, IDC

IDC Opening Keynote: The AI Moment: Strategies for CIOs in the Middle East

AI, predicted to have a $19.9 trillion impact on the global economy by 2030, is reshaping economic landscapes, creating new revenue streams, and redefining competitive advantages. This session will provide unique insights and analysis drawn from IDC’s extensive study of CIOs and key decision-makers across the Middle East. It will provide a deeper understanding of current and planned AI strategies and use case road maps, covering key topics such as AI-ready data, unified governance, fit-for-purpose and scalable infrastructure, and AI talent.

Meredith Whalen

Chief Product, Research & Delivery Officer, IDC

Unlock the Full Value of Enterprise AI

AI investments are projected to surge 150% through 2030, with 79% of executives expecting AI to drive revenue—yet only 24% have clarity on where that value will come from. Unlocking this opportunity requires more than models; it demands access to the 99% of enterprise data that remains untouched by AI, open and fit-for-purpose architectures, and the ability to orchestrate AI agents at scale. With real examples from IBM and industry innovators across MEA, learn how organizations are achieving multi-billion-dollar productivity gains, accelerating innovation, and reinventing business processes with AI.

Frank Theisen

Vice President (EMEA), IBM Technology

Ask Questions, Rate Sessions & Stand a Chance to Win a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Panel Discussion: Scaling AI for Enterprise Transformation: Cloud Modernization and Sovereignty as Strategic Foundations for 2026

As AI shifts decisively toward business value realization, organizations across the region are accelerating the operationalization of AI—anchored by IT automation, digital sovereignty, and large-scale cloud modernization. Join IDC’s Meredith Whalen, IBM’s Saad Toma, and leading public sector CIOs for an in-depth discussion spotlighting real-world production outcomes from organizations. The conversation will explore how cloud sovereignty, robust AI governance, and ecosystem collaboration are emerging as critical enablers for secure, compliant, and sustainable transformation in 2026.

Meredith Whalen

Chief Product, Research & Delivery Officer, IDC

Saad Toma

General Manager (MEA), IBM

Latifa Al Shehhi

Director of Investment Data Department & Chief AI Officer (CAIO), Ministry of Investment (UAE)

Dr. David Millan

Chief Data & AI Officer, Department of Culture and Tourism (UAE)

Eng. Meshal Bin Hussain

Director of Digital Transformation & Chief AI Officer, Ministry of Finance (UAE)

Eng. Abdulla AlKhemeiri

Chief Operations Officer, EtihadWE

Saeed Belhoul

Director of Digital Government Operations, Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA)

Sovereign by design: Completing the stack with Agentic AI

Agentic AI is a powerful and necessary evolution, but intelligence alone does not deliver sovereignty. Deployed on fragmented digital environments, agentic AI amplifies complexity rather than trust or outcomes. This keynote explores a sovereign-by-design approach, where digital platforms are fully operated and architected to ensure data, applications, security, and operations remain sovereign and accountable. Within this model, agentic AI is positioned as the end layer, orchestrating trusted systems and delivering measurable outcomes at scale.

Khalid Murshed

Chief Executive Officer, e& enterprise

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Agentic AI: Re-Architecting Enterprise Value Chains for the Autonomous Future

As enterprises step into an era defined by autonomy, Agentic AI is emerging as the most transformative architectural shift since cloud. Rather than augmenting tasks, agentic systems dynamically perceive, reason, and act across value chains—driving decisions, orchestrating workflows, and elevating human potential. In this session, Tech Mahindra’s Chief Innovation Officer & Global Head of AI & Emerging Tech, Nikhil Malhotra, explores how enterprises can responsibly harness Agentic AI to redesign operations, unlock new business models, and build adaptive digital ecosystems. Through real-world learnings, he will highlight the leadership imperatives, governance foundations, and organizational rewiring required to succeed in an autonomous-first world.

Nikhil Malhotra

Chief Innovation Officer & Global Head of AI & Emerging Tech, Tech Mahindra

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Leading in the Age of AI-Native Enterprises

As enterprises strive to become AI native, CIOs and IT leaders face a stark reality: most AI pilots fail to reach production. This forward-looking keynote will explore how organizations can break out of that trap by shifting from experimentation to execution. It will introduce a new approach to enterprise AI — one that unifies agents, applications, workflows, and data into a single, horizontal foundation. Rather than adding another point solution, this model enables AI to operate reliably across real business processes at scale. Attendees will gain insight into what it takes to move from fragmented architectures to production-grade AI, and why an enterprise AI operating layer is fast becoming the foundation for leadership in the AI-native era.

Roland Boulos

Vice President, Go-to-Market Strategy & Solution Consulting, UnifyApps

Ask Questions, Rate Sessions & Stand a Chance to Win a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

From AI Ambition to Enterprise Impact: Why Orchestration Is the Missing Link for Scalable AI

Across the UAE, organizations have adopted AI with unprecedented urgency, moving rapidly from experimentation to enterprise-scale deployment. Yet as AI adoption accelerates, many IT leaders are discovering that AI alone cannot deliver sustained value without the right operational foundation. As the region enters a critical phase of AI execution, success now depends on the ability to orchestrate processes, systems, data, and emerging AI agents within governed, observable workflows. This session will explore why business process orchestration is becoming the essential connective tissue between AI ambition and real-world business outcomes. Attendees will learn how combining process automation, workflow orchestration, and agentic AI enables greater efficiency, regulatory compliance, data sovereignty, and trust at a national scale. By grounding AI initiatives in structured, automated processes, organizations can move beyond pilots, reduce complexity, and safely unlock measurable ROI — turning AI into a true enterprise capability aligned with long-term digital transformation goals.

Samir Akel

Regional Vice President, Emerging Markets, Nintex

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Resilience by Design

Building adaptable architectures to withstand disruption and volatility

Burak Borhan

Regional Ecosystem Director, Red Hat

Faisal Haneef

Senior Director Cloud Platform (MEA), SAP

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Into a New Era of Transformation, with AI at the Center

As AI reshapes industries and accelerates digital transformation, organizations are entering a new phase where speed, scale, and impact make all the difference. According to IDC, AI is the top digital investment priority for 60% of organizations in the UAE, reflecting the region’s growing focus on AI-driven transformation. This session explores how organizations can accelerate AI adoption, by tackling the top challenges and addressing key regional priorities.

Ali El Kontar

CEO, Zero&One

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From AI Ambition to Enterprise Reality

As AI investment accelerates across the Middle East and globally, enterprises face a widening execution gap between ambition and production. The challenge has shifted: AI readiness—infrastructure choices, deployment strategies, and governance models— now matters more than experimentation. This keynote explores how organizations can close that gap and scale AI securely and sustainably. Drawing on regional insights and Intel’s open AI ecosystem approach, we’ll examine what separates pilots from production, and how to architect AI systems that deliver measurable business value while maintaining control over data, security, and performance.

The path from ambition to reality isn’t about doing more with AI — it’s about doing AI right.

Eng. Taha M. Khalifa

General Manager (MEA), Intel Corporation

Ask Questions, Rate Sessions & Stand a Chance to Win a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Advisory Council Felicitation

Tea / Coffee & Networking Break

Engage, Explore, and Network—Where technology meets unforgettable moments!

Make the most of your networking break with exciting experiences! Enjoy coffee or ice cream from the Robotic Arm Café, capture memories at the AI Photobooth. Pick up your exclusive AI T-shirt.

Refresh & Regroup

Lunch & Networking

End of Day 1

Registration & Networking – Arrive Early & Stand a Chance to Win Prizes

Join Adrian Hayes, World-Renowned Adventurer and Keynote Speaker, as he Hosts Day 2 and Shares Powerful Stories of Resilience, Leadership, and Human Potential

Adrian Hayes

World-Record Adventurer and Renowned Speaker,

IDC Welcome Address

Ranjit Rajan

Vice President, Research (META), IDC

Red-Carpet Experience: Reimagining Airport Journeys Through Digital Innovation

First Lieutenant Dr. Salem Albedwawi

Head of Improvement Support & Development, General Directorate for Identity and Foreigners Affairs, Dubai

Designing Collective Intelligence: Signals, Swarms, and the Future of the Modern Enterprises

How nature’s simplest systems inspire smarter, more adaptive organizations in an AI-shaped world.

We will explore how simple principles from natural systems—signals, shared awareness, and coordinated swarming—are reshaping our understanding of organizational intelligence. Discover new possibilities for how enterprises can sense change, organize knowledge, and respond with speed in an AI-shaped world, all while remaining fundamentally human.

Ramadhyani R

SVP, Data & AI, HCLTech

Ask Questions, Rate Sessions & Stand a Chance to Win a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Powering the Future of AI: From Oscillation to Orchestration

AI adoption is accelerating, but enterprise value is not keeping pace. Organizations are caught between centralized platforms and fast-moving, decentralized innovation, leading to fragmentation, rising costs, and limited ROI. This session will highlight 12 trends shaping AI in 2026, showing how enterprises can move from experimentation to impact by orchestrating data, agents, and execution across the core, the grid, and the edge.

Dan Sommer

Senior Director, Market Intelligence Lead, Qlik

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Building the Agentic Future: From Pilots to Production-Ready Enterprise AI

The “Season of Prototypes” is over. For CIOs in the Middle East, the mandate has shifted from “what is possible with AI” to “how do we put AI to work securely and at scale?” This session explores the transition from generic chatbots to integrated agentic systems — AI that doesn’t just talk, but reasons, acts, and integrates deeply with core enterprise logic. We will discuss the non-negotiable architectural requirements for “production-ready” agents: predictability, accuracy, and identity. Crucially, we will address how regional leaders can lead this revolution while remaining compliant with regulations and maintaining control over their data.

Gonçalo Borrêga

Vice President, Product, AI & AppDev, OutSystems

Amr Hafiz

Managing Director, envnt

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Automation for the AI era

Even as technology and AI megatrends are dramatically shaping enterprise IT today and creating massive opportunities, they are increasing complexity and creating new challenges. This isn’t just an IT problem but a business problem as well. Addressing these challenges requires a transformative approach, one that is underpinned by automation. This session will highlight how BMC powers automation for the AI era, highlighting core capabilities and product innovations that help customers operationalize automation use cases at the nexus of AI and data, and realize value.

Ram Chakravarti

Chief Technology Officer, BMC Software

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Fireside Chat: Building the Future: Turning Data Insights into Impact

Middle East is entering a defining decade for data and artificial intelligence. As organisations scale their ambitions, the opportunity now lies in building the data foundations that will determine long-term success. Drawing on new IDC research, this session outlines a practical roadmap for turning data insight into real-world impact over the next ten years.

It explores where organisations can focus next to unlock value, reduce risk, and accelerate AI outcomes. Attendees will gain a clear view of how to position their data strategies to win in the decade ahead.

Melih Murat

Associate Research Director, IT Services & Software (META), IDC

Mutaz Salem

Chief Executive Officer, Dstation

Ask Questions, Rate Sessions & Stand a Chance to Win a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Tea/ Coffee & Networking Break

Engage, explore, and network—where technology meets unforgettable moments!

Make the most of your networking break with exciting experiences! Enjoy coffee or ice cream from the Robotic Arm Café, capture memories at the AI Photobooth. Pick up your exclusive AI T-shirt.

Refresh & Reorganize

Partner & Speaker Felicitation

AI Visionaries Acknowledgement

IDC introduces the AI Visionaries Acknowledgement, a prestigious platform recognizing organizations across the Middle East that are setting benchmarks in strategic, impactful, and measurable AI adoption. Nominate your organization to be recognized among the region’s leading AI innovators.

Lunch & Close of Summit