Gulf Business Machines (GBM), IBM and IDC have hosted an executive conference in Dubai to address the scaling of agentic AI. With UAE AI spending projected to reach $5.78 billion by 2029, the partners are focusing on secure, sovereign infrastructure to help regional organisations transition from experimental pilots to autonomous enterprise workflows.
According to recent forecasts by IDC, AI spending in the UAE is projected to reach an unprecedented USD 5.78 billion by 2029. While the UAE is moving exceptionally fast in its AI adoption, the conference brought together senior technology leaders from across the UAE to explore what it takes to capture these opportunities and run AI at scale, spanning systems, automation, and agentic AI.
Experts addressed the realities of enterprise-scale AI across four core pillars, with discussions on contrasting AI-ready infrastructure with legacy systems, exploring how intelligent automation eliminates deployment friction, and tackling the transition of Agentic AI from pilot to production.
The event featured engaging, expert-led speaker sessions, which included prominent leadership voices from all three organizing partners. Dr. Feras Al Jabi, General Manager, Technology at GBM; Shukri Eid, VP & General Manager – Gulf, Levant and Pakistan, IBM Gulf; and Melih Murat, Associate Research Director, Artificial Intelligence (META), IDC, shared critical insights on the subject.
As regional enterprises seek to transition from experimental AI tools to autonomous systems capable of executing complex workflows, secure and sovereign local infrastructure remains critical. Additionally, attendees experienced an exclusive demonstration of advanced IBM units recently purchased by GBM, highlighting GBM’s strategic commitment to building a resilient, compliant and sovereign regional AI ecosystem.
Dr. Feras Al Jabi, General Manager, Technology, GBM, said, “For the region’s enterprises to innovate, they need more than raw compute power alone; secure, localized infrastructure that respects regional compliance and business culture is vital. ‘The Agentic Enterprise’ represents our vision of a future where AI does not just support decision-making but also acts as a driver of organizational growth in a safe and seamless ecosystem.”
