Today's Edition
BATOOL GHAITH (ABU DHABI)
As artificial intelligence becomes the foundation of digital transformation, the UAE is leading a new era of innovation defined by data sovereignty, resilience, and ethical technology, an expert has said.
Mohammad Al-Jallad, Chief Technologist and Director of HPC and AI Global Sales at HPE, has seen firsthand how UAE institutions — working with partners like HPE — are building environments that enable AI innovation at scale.
“This holistic approach, combining leadership vision with world-class infrastructure, positions the UAE as a model for responsible AI-driven economies. The UAE’s remarkable progress in artificial intelligence reflects a broader global shift from technology adoption to capability ownership,” Al-Jallad told Aletihad during GITEX Global.
Enterprises are now shifting from fragmented hybrid setups to unified, composable architectures that integrate on-premises, edge, and cloud resources under one intelligent control plane, he said.
“Security is now embedded by design, through zero-trust principles, workload isolation, and policy-driven automation.” Hybrid models such as HPE’s, he added, offer the agility of public cloud with the governance of private infrastructure, ensuring resilience and compliance.
On the growing importance of data sovereignty, Al-Jallad noted that “sovereign AI has become a key requirement for every nation that wants to maintain its strategic autonomy and resilience”.
He noted that in the Middle East, countries like the UAE are leading this transformation by investing heavily in sovereign AI ecosystems, smart infrastructure, and digital talent development.
“The region’s strategy has matured from adopting cloud technologies to building self-reliant AI capabilities. These efforts ensure that technologies remain locally governed and aligned with national visions,” he added.
Looking to the future, Al-Jallad expects AI, edge computing, and hybrid clouds to continue redefining scalability and resilience. He said advancements in GPU orchestration, automation, and AI observability will enable enterprises to operationalise AI faster and more securely.
“Organisations will build specialised AI data centres designed for processing intelligence, not just traditional workloads,” he said, adding that such evolution would help the UAE and its partners accelerate innovation responsibly while safeguarding data sovereignty.
