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 data sovereignty becomes a critical business requirement, organizations must rethink how and where data is managed. This session explores how hybrid, multi-cloud, and edge strategies can help you balance compliance, performance, and flexibility—so your architecture supports both control and growth.
Turning AI into real business impact requires more than models—it demands alignment across data, processes, and outcomes. This session explores how to operationalize AI effectively, bridging the gap between experimentation and measurable value.
AI workloads are pushing cloud strategies to evolve. This session unpacks how to optimize for cost, performance, and scalability—ensuring your cloud foundation can support AI growth without compromising efficiency.
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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Associate Research Director (META)
IDC
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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.
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.
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.