Pioneering progress: lessons in leadership from the UAE's AI innovations

As I join thousands of leaders heading to Abu Dhabi for this year’s ADIPEC conference, I’m again reminded of the United Arab Emirates’ ambitions for growth. In each dialogue I’ve had with UAE leaders over the years, I’ve had the chance to hear first-hand the concerted effort they have made to be forward-looking. While the country has long been known as an energy powerhouse and a tourism hub, it is also keen on driving innovation in areas such as social welfare, public services, and, most recently, leadership in artificial intelligence (AI).

Every action, every message has propelled the UAE’s narrative of economic diversification and technological advancement. The country is swiftly moving to establish itself as a leader in AI, having launched Falcon, an open- source, sovereign large language model, ahead of most nations. The UAE has recently quadrupled its AI workforce and established multiple data centres to support the technology. Falcon, for instance, can power chatbots and image generators like other generative AI tools, and its latest iteration claims to be the first LLM model with image-to-text conversion.

At the heart of this rise in AI tools, which has been underpinned by ChatGPT and generative AI more broadly, is a clear reminder of how important agility and intentionality can be for leaders. With the technology moving from media headlines into boardroom discussions, it is evident that despite most using AI and wanting to leverage it to advance business growth – less than a third of companies are seeing the value they anticipate.

Part of that is because unlocking this value requires a full reimagining and continuous reinventing of functions, processes and most other ways of working within an organisation. It begins with – and is enabled by – a strong digital core that combines the right data and technology with people at the very centre.

At a time of constant change, where business leaders rank technology as the most disruptive force for companies, having a robust digital core can put businesses on track to meet the current digital transformation needs.

The Digital Core: Foundation for AI- Driven Transformation

We define the digital core as the critical technological capability to create and empower an organisation’s reinvention ambitions. It means reintegrating advanced digital platforms, having seamless data and AI backbone and building a secure foundation using new engineering principles.

Enterprises that have done this well have seen 60% higher revenue growth rate and 40% higher profitability. They’ve adopted a digital core tailored to their industry and company, consistently increased investments in innovation and have addressed technical debt in their IT systems.

Energy companies, for instance, are facing rapid change ahead, which will require new skillsets. Technologies like robotics and drones will account for 20% of the global workforce by 2028. To address these changes effectively, energy leaders must focus on moving quickly to modernise their technology operations and shifting away from legacy infrastructures. A sign of their efforts has been consistent investment in technology like generative AI, data analytics, machine learning and cloud to drive three primary goals: operational excellence (71%), increased employee productivity (40%) and business resilience (31%).

Customising the digital core to meet business objectives

A digital core goes hand in hand with new ways of working and adoption of new operating models, methods and processes alongside expanding employee skillset. For energy companies, as an example, this can mean a shift away from legacy IT systems that are often siloed to a more comprehensive view of their technology foundations that can help drive decision-making.

When built well, a strong digital core can enable companies to have:

1. Data integration and accessibility: Breaking down silos to create a unified view of enterprise data.
2. Real-time analytics: Providing instant insights to speed up decision-making.
3. Scalability: Allowing rapid deployment of AI solutions across the organisation.
4. Enhanced Security: Protecting data assets and AI models from threats.

A multinational oil company, for example, successfully enabled its crews to make decisions on and deliver operations remotely by migrating to the cloud, leading to significant operational cost savings and to better user experience. And a US chemicals company used AI-enabled market analysis tools to create a relevant value proposition, and further, equip sales and engineers with the data to better anticipate and address customer demands.

To Reinvent or Stand Still?

Recounting the last time the Middle East spurned the top innovation of its time, the Gutenberg press, the UAE’s AI Minister His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama said, “We are still paying the price” of that decision nearly 700 years ago. He emphasised that the UAE will not repeat this mistake, asserting that “whoever leads the race on AI will lead the future.” The tone is clear, and so are the country’s actions since his appointment in 2017, the first in the world.

Moreover, neither HE Al Olama nor the UAE, at large, views this ambition in isolation, suggesting that the global collaboration could lead to “centres and nodes of excellence around the world” in AI.

The companies that are well suited to make this a reality globally are those that are intentional about building a strong digital core and leverage AI to address unique challenges.

With the economic potential for generative AI to reach US$10.3 trillion by 2038, the imperative is clear: companies must adapt to these technological advancements, or risk being left behind while their peers gain a competitive advantage.