Ten tech companies discuss big reveals in AI – Gitex Global

No two words capture the current business zeitgeist better than artificial intelligence – and so it is little surprise to find AI take centre stage at GITEX this year.

Now in its 43rd edition – and considered the world’s largest and most inclusive tech event – GITEX 2023 is ‘The Year to Imagine AI in Everything’.

Which is exactly what many of the 6,000 technology exhibitors will be doing when they bring their pioneering products and solutions to the Dubai stage from October 16-20.

Think 10 co-located shows, 6,000 exhibitors, 41 halls, two mega venues, 2,000 tech startups, and 1,400 world-class speakers.

Among the too-many-to-mention tech companies set to shine a spotlight on the opportunities AI can offer, Oracle, Snowflake, Dataiku, Huawei and many, many more will present AI solutions and innovations designed to support the implementation of the UAE’s National Strategy for AI 2031.

Aimed at generating up to AED 335 (US$91.21) billion in economic growth, the vision is to make the UAE the world’s most prepared country for AI.

Supporting this regional vision are numerous technology businesses, including Oracle – which returns to GITEX with innovative AI solutions.

1

Oracle – Gen AI innovation

Oracle, whose regional customers include e&, Injazat, Petrofac, AW Rostamani, Emirates Post, Abu Dhabi Customs, Miral, DULSCO, plans to demonstrate how its latest Generative AI innovation can help to address the most complex business challenges across diverse industries, to drive growth.

“Specially designed AI focused interactive pods across finance, healthcare, human resources, customer experience and many more functions, and Generative AI demo stations operated by Oracle’s AI experts, will help business and technology leaders explore customised growth scenarios for their businesses”, says Leopoldo Boado Lama, senior vice president – Business Applications, ECEMEA, Oracle.

Oracle’s presence at GITEX is headlined with the Oracle Red Bull Racing experience, allowing visitors to learn about the role of Oracle Cloud powered real-time data in helping Formula 1 drivers win.

2

Snowflake – Document AI launch

Data cloud firm Snowflake will also showcase the opportunities Gen AI and large language models (LLMs) have to offer.

The NYSE-listed company, which helps 639 of the Forbes Global 2000 companies mobilise their data and power their businesses, recently announced strategic investments to accelerate genAI for customers.

Enter Document AI, a platform that leverages Snowflake’s first-party LLM to unlock deeper insights from documents and extract value with increased speed, accuracy and simplicity. While Snowpark Container Services expands Snowflake’s computer infrastructure to run a variety of workloads, including full-stack applications, secure hosting of LLMs and robust model training.

“At Snowflake, our vision is to eliminate silos and mobilise your data, and AI is propelling this vision forward at warp speed,” says Mohamed Zouari, GM for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

"We have made significant strides in providing AI-driven functionality, enabling secure AI/ML workloads on enterprise data and reinventing the developer and administrative experience with AI. With Snowflake, businesses gain unparalleled governance over their data, access to first and third-party AI models, and a self-managing, elastic infrastructure that delivers the power they need as a managed service."

3

Dataiku – bringing AI to everyone

Tapping into the uptick in adoption rates of AI technologies regionally, Dataiku – which positions itself as the platform for Everyday AI – will show organisations how to reap the maximum rewards from AI investments by making AI accessible to users with varying skill sets and roles.

“Dataiku is the Everyday AI company,” says Sid Bhatia, Regional VP and GM for the Middle East, adding that by “empowering data experts and domain experts to work together to build AI into their daily operations, we enable everyone to add value – to be extraordinary, and to power their company into the future as a competitive force”.

Delivered under the theme ‘Maximising Business Value with AI: Scaling Across the Organisation’, Dataiku will focus on its recently updated eponymous flagship platform Dataiku 12, which offers integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT – allowing business users to incorporate the tool’s learning models into their native data projects by extending datasets and performing tasks using a visual interface and natural-language prompts.

With this platform, Dataiku will urge businesses and government entities to bring AI to all employees – from business experts to technologists.

4

Cloudera – democratising AI

Hybrid data company Cloudera is also looking to democratise AI with its new offering.

With the belief that to succeed with AI at scale, businesses must use all their data – and to do that, they must trust their data – Cloudera is set to bring generative AI based on large language models (LLL) to companies.

They will showcase an LLM Chatbot Augmented with Enterprise Data for companies to unlock value from their data further and succeed with enterprise AI in a trusted, secure and responsible manner.

According to Karim Azar, Cloudera’s Regional VP, Middle East & Turkey, this new offering means businesses can develop their own AI application powered by an open-source LLM of their choice with their data, all hosted internally in the enterprise, and so empowering all their developers and lines of business – truly democratising AI.

5

Avaya – genAI in customer experience transformation

US multinational tech company Avaya will also deliver big on the AI front at GITEX (H22-C10).

The company, which specialises in contact centre and communications solutions, will showcase how organisations can empower their teams with advanced AI tools to better serve customers, as well as empower customers to create their own preferred journeys across multiple touchpoints.

“The capabilities being delivered by AI are super-charging organisations’ ability to innovate with their customer experiences,” says Nidal Abou-Ltaif, SVP – Global Head of Sales, Avaya, and President, Avaya International. “As our global customers look to generative AI, they are seeking a trusted partner to bring it all together without disrupting existing operations.”

Avaya plays that role, helping organisations bring these innovations, on a large scale, into their contact centres. Among these, Avaya will demonstrate how genAI can sit at the heart of customer experience transformation, touching everything from agent experience to customer satisfaction to operations.

They will also showcase Hybrid AI solutions – a combination of traditional chatbots and genAI tools – and demonstrate how advanced AI tools can help monitor and aid agent wellness, ensuring they stay in the best possible form to meet customer expectations.

6

Huawei – AI and industries

For Huawei, whose participation in this year’s GITEX (H22) is distinct in its focus on AI-centric solutions, AI Everything is an era where AI “plays a central role in reshaping industries, driving innovation, and enhancing efficiency”, says Dr Alaa Elshimy, SVP, Huawei Enterprise Business Group, Middle East & Central Asia Region.

Under the theme of Accelerate Intelligence, Huawei will introduce new intelligent industry solutions and explore how AI is deeply integrated into industries, serving as an increasing number of industry scenarios, and how organisations can innovate and grow at an unprecedented speed.

“We will highlight how we nurture a prosperous partner ecosystem for win-win outcomes, working with partners on solutions like these to promote the in-depth integration of AI and industry scenarios and enable the intelligent transformation of a growing number of industries.”

The Chinese tech company will showcase how they can enable smart, green, and innovative solutions across different products, including data communication, storage, Optix technology, wireless, and cloud.

7

SolarWinds – enhanced observability products with AI

Also dedicating itself to AI Everything is SaaS company SolarWinds, which has enhanced its monitoring and observability products extensively with AI so customers don’t waste time reviewing logs, checking performance metrics, or responding to noisy, low-value alerts.

“The golden opportunity of ‘AI Everything’ is in empowering organisations to sharpen their focus on innovation and on their strategic marketplace and business differentiators,” says Abdul Rehman Tariq, Regional Sales Director – Middle East at SolarWinds.

“Our average prospect is an IT team that spends much of their time living in ‘firefighting’ mode to keep their IT systems up and running. Once our customers deploy our AI-enhanced offerings, they can get ahead of the constant firefighting and instead can focus on value-added work like building the next iterations of their products and IT systems.”

SolarWinds tools automatically detect anomalies and outlier patterns from the reams of constantly streaming data, enabling the customer to focus on tasks that are high value to their organisations.

8

Vectra AI – industry-first platform

AI-powered security will also take centre stage on the Vectra AI stand at GITEX (H23-B40) – where the leader in AI-driven cyberthreat detection and response will introduce the industry's first AI-driven detection and response platform for hybrid networks. 

“AI is the best ally the hybrid enterprise can have when it comes to building a security function that can respond to attackers at speed and scale,” says Taj El-khayat, Area VP, EMEA South, at Vectra AI. 

Believing that the current approaches to threat detection and response leave organisations exposed, Vectra is introducing the industry’s first AI-driven, fully integrated hybrid attack detection and response platform to deliver extended detection and response (XDR) for hybrid attacks at speed and scale.

It allows organisations to integrate Vectra AI’s public cloud, identity, SaaS, and network signal with existing endpoint detection and response (EDR) signal to arm SOC teams in their fight against the ever-growing sophistication, speed, and scale of hybrid attacks.

9

Tenable – putting power in hands of security teams

Another security tech company harnessing the power of Generative AI, Tenable (Hall 24 A40) will showcase its powerful Tenable One Exposure Management Platform – which leverages GenAI to put more power in the hands of security teams.

Tenable One informs their exposure management programmes to identify and remediate cyber-risk where it exists. By combining broad exposure coverage spanning IT assets, cloud resources, containers, web applications and identity platforms, with threat intelligence and data science from Tenable Research, users can prevent likely attacks and accurately communicate cyber-risk to support optimal business performance.

“We want to show security teams how to gain the upper hand, helping them to change focus from constantly firefighting to proactively addressing their cyber-risks,” says Maher Jadallah, Senior Director Middle East & North Africa.

10

Mandiant – Google Cloud – using genAI augment defences

Part of Google Cloud, Mandiant plays a crucial role in securing customers’ cloud journeys – and will take to the GITEX stage (Hall 7, Stand G30) with AI-powered technology to help guide businesses on their cloud transformation journeys.

The company, which has been involved in mitigating some of the world’s most high-profile cyberattacks, leverages state-of-the-art AI technologies and insights gained from frontline incident response engagements to help organisations address key challenges – from shortage of skilled resources, to increasing sophistication of threat actors.

With a focus on the pressing cybersecurity issues of today, including supply chain vulnerabilities, ransomware, and geopolitical threats, Mandiant will showcase its Advantage platform, an integrated solution covering Threat Intelligence, Attack Surface Management, Security Validation and Breach Analytics.

By pioneering the use of AI, particularly genAI to augment defences, Mandiant is using the technology to stop threats, reduce toil, and scale cybersecurity talent – enabling quicker threat detection and response, reducing the burden on security specialists, and bridging the talent gap in the industry.

The key takeaway Mandiant aims to impart is the importance of being prepared: do not test the preparedness of your security team in a security incident. Leverage Mandiant to help you detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats more efficiently," says Jamil Abu Aqel, Head of Mandiant systems engineering for MEA and Emerging region, Google Cloud.