Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
The UAE's artificial intelligence adoption is gaining real momentum, with clean data foundations, trusted governance, and end-to-end defences turning pilots into impact.
Aletihad spoke to industry experts regarding how AI, data and security are evolving in the UAE.
Nader Paslar, General Manager of CODE81, says the key lies not in hype but readiness: "The mission is to ensure the adoption of AI within the community, as well as the people. But people are saying they want AI without having the right data. That is where we go in to guide them. Is your data ready? Do you have governance, quality, and catalogue in place to become truly AI-ready?"
He noted that while 95% of AI investments globally still fail, the UAE has positioned itself "not just regionally but internationally in AI and technology investments".
Cybersecurity is another front in this transformation. Kaspersky's lead researcher, Maher Yamout, warned: "Everyone is trying to adapt to a new threat landscape, especially infostealers and ransomware. Once installed, the malware collects usernames and passwords. Those credentials are then sold on the dark web."
Yamout called for vigilance and practical defence: "Even if credentials are stolen, users should change passwords every one to two months, and enable two-factor authentication. That is how you enable security end-to-end."
He also flagged AI's double edge: "AI will become mainstream. At the same time, AI is also driving threats like deepfakes and voice cloning. If you get a video or voice message, you should validate it through another medium."
From a security perspective, CrowdStrike's Roland Dakash observed that attack tactics keep changing."We are seeing adversaries weaponise generative AI to craft phishing, new exploits, and malicious code."
The scale of threat is accelerating, he warned, adding: "Around 80% of recent attacks we have seen start with an identity compromise. Cloud-native attacks are up 136%, and voice-phishing is up 442%."
His answer: "A holistic approach that covers endpoints, networks, clouds and identities."
