Author: Art Ryan

Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN is taking its Arabic AI models into Microsoft’s enterprise ecosystem. The two companies announced the first milestone in a long-term strategic collaboration on August 26. The plan centers on bringing HUMAIN’s ALLAM Arabic-language models to Microsoft Foundry. Microsoft 365 Copilot is part of the roadmap too. There is an important distinction, though. ALLAM isn’t being announced as generally available on those platforms today. HUMAIN and Microsoft say they intend to make the models available. No public launch date or pricing was included in the announcement. The bigger story is what happens if that integration lands. Arabic-focused AI…

Oman has a new sovereign AI platform, and the pitch is refreshingly practical. Omantel technology subsidiary Otech and Omani AI startup DeepAstra have launched the DeepAstra API. The locally hosted service gives organizations access to multiple AI models through one interface. Users can test different models without building separate infrastructure for each one. There is another important piece: the data stays local. The platform is designed around security, governance, compliance, and greater control over AI deployments. For smaller companies, that could remove a stubborn barrier. Building AI infrastructure is expensive. Renting access to it as needed is considerably easier. One…

The Sharjah conglomerate has launched DIWAN, its own private, group-wide AI assistant, now live for employees across the Group and delivered with technology partner Magure. DIWAN runs on a privately deployed model within the Group’s own cloud environment, designed so that sensitive data stays inside the Group’s infrastructure. Sharjah and Dubai, UAE August 26, 2026. Bukhatir Group, one of the UAE’s oldest and most diversified business houses, and Magure, a UAE-headquartered enterprise AI company, today announced a strategic partnership to embed AI across the Group’s businesses, beginning with a milestone already achieved: DIWAN, a secure enterprise AI assistant, is now…

The free eight-week online program, delivered by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, helps businesses turn early-stage ideas into actionable R&D plans while building connections with expert facilitators and researchers. Offered through the Queensland Government-funded Regional University Industry Collaboration (RUIC) program, Innovate to Grow connects businesses with experienced researchers and industry mentors at the state’s regional universities. Dr George Feast, CSIRO’s Executive Manager for Industry-Research Collaboration, said the program helped SMEs make confident, informed decisions about their research. “Many businesses want to invest in R&D but aren’t sure where to start, or whether an idea is worth pursuing,” Dr Feast said.…

Faria Education Group is pushing deeper into artificial intelligence with a new acquisition aimed directly at school data. The education technology company has acquired Edu Intelligence, an AI-native analytics platform built for schools. The deal adds a new data and analytics layer to Faria’s growing product ecosystem. The attraction is fairly easy to see. Schools already collect huge amounts of information, but that data often sits in separate systems. Edu Intelligence is designed to make those records easier to question and understand. School leaders can ask questions in plain English. The platform then returns evidence-based answers without requiring complex dashboards…

The enterprise AI conversation is changing. For the past few years, companies rushed to launch pilots, test generative AI tools, and talk about transformation. Now executives are facing a less exciting question: what is actually working? That tension sits at the center of Momentum AI Austin 2026. Reuters Events has released the summit’s full C-suite agenda and confirmed its premier sponsors. The event is scheduled for September 24–25 at the JW Marriott Austin. More than 500 senior executives are expected to attend. Over 70% of the audience will represent enterprise decision-makers. The focus is not another round of AI demos.…

Searching Google for an AI coding tool should be routine. Recently, however, fake OpenAI Codex ads have resulted in a malware trap for some Mac users. For some Mac users, it became a malware trap. Cybercriminals are buying sponsored search ads that pretend to offer OpenAI Codex downloads. The ads lead developers to convincing fake pages hosted through Google Sites. Those pages use OpenAI branding and look believable at first glance. There is no real Codex installer waiting there. Instead, users are told to open Terminal and paste a command. That command quietly starts a multi-stage malware infection. Researchers at…

The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), represented by the Sharjah Training and Development Center (STDC), is set to launch the Oxford and Cambridge Executive Programme in Leadership, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation, taking place at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge from 30 August to 5 September 2026. The programme is part of the Sharjah Chamber’s strategic initiatives for 2026, underscoring its commitment to investing in human capital and developing future-ready executive leadership equipped to navigate rapid advances in AI, the digital economy, strategic decision-making, and digital transformation. It is designed to enhance organisational agility in responding to…

Buying business internet in the UAE is starting to look less like buying connectivity and more like buying an AI stack. One notable example of this shift is e& UAE Business Pro AI, which is changing expectations for business connectivity in the region. If you are considering e& UAE Business Pro AI for your company, it’s important to understand how this innovative solution is transforming the business landscape. e& UAE has launched Business Pro AI, a new range of business fibre plans with AI tools built into the package. Eligible plans include Microsoft 365 Copilot at no additional monthly cost.…

Saudi Arabia’s AI ambitions just picked up another major European partner. French AI company Mistral and Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN have announced a strategic collaboration worth hundreds of millions of euros. The agreement covers AI infrastructure, advanced models, and commercial deployment. Saudi Arabia will be the starting point, but the companies are thinking regionally. The interesting part isn’t simply the size of the deal. Mistral and HUMAIN want to build technology together. Arabic-language models, cybersecurity, voice AI, local computing capacity, and sovereign AI are all part of the plan. For HUMAIN, this adds another major name to its rapidly expanding AI…

The United Kingdom and Ukraine are taking their technology partnership deeper into artificial intelligence. On August 24, the two countries signed a strategic AI partnership in Kyiv. The agreement brings together British AI expertise and Ukraine’s battlefield experience. Its first focus will be defence and national security. One part stands out. Britain will become the first international partner to gain access to Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs. The platform holds battlefield data used to train AI models. That could give British researchers a rare testing ground for new defence technology. Britain Gets Access to Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs The agreement gives…

The UAE is putting artificial intelligence to work against a problem AI itself has helped complicate: misinformation. The International Centre for Combating Media Disinformation (ICCMD) is developing an AI-powered system for monitoring digital media. It will analyze online content, identify patterns, and support verification efforts. The system is also designed to track how narratives spread across digital channels. This isn’t simply another fact-checking tool. The project points toward a broader approach where AI continuously watches the information environment. Human media expertise will remain part of the process. AI Will Monitor Digital Content as It Spreads The ICCMD system is being…

Travelers used to follow a predictable path when searching for hotels. They opened Google, searched a destination, compared properties, checked reviews, and then booked. AI is starting to change that routine. Travelers can now describe the type of stay they want in plain language. An AI assistant can then narrow the choices before the traveler visits a hotel website or booking platform. That shift creates a new challenge for hotels. Their property may be filtered out before a traditional search result even appears. Travelers Are Asking AI Instead of Browsing Endless Hotel Results Traditional hotel search gives travelers pages of…

Elastic has finished its acquisition of Deductive AI, and this one is less about adding another chatbot to an enterprise software stack. The target is a messier problem: production incidents. Elastic said Deductive AI will become part of its broader push to bring AI-powered investigation and automation into Elastic Observability. Deductive’s technology is designed to investigate outages and software problems across code, telemetry and internal engineering knowledge rather than simply summarize an alert and hand the problem back to a human engineer. That distinction matters. Modern engineering teams already have mountains of logs, metrics and traces. What they often lack…

AI assistants know a lot. Your company culture? Usually not much. That’s where Culture Amp AI integration can make a real difference. That gap is what Culture Amp is trying to close. The employee experience platform announced on August 24 that it is opening its core Culture Amp platform, including Engage and Perform, to AI assistants through Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectivity. That means managers will be able to access workplace engagement, performance and culture insights from tools such as ChatGPT and Claude instead of repeatedly jumping back into a separate HR platform. It sounds like another enterprise AI integration…

Dubai is putting artificial intelligence deeper into the machinery of government — this time not through a public-facing chatbot or another digital assistant. The Dubai Government Human Resources Department (DGHR) has formally adopted its Workforce Productivity Measurement System as a unified platform across the Dubai Government, expanding the system to 32 government entities. Behind it sits a mix of data analytics, machine learning and advanced artificial intelligence designed to answer a fairly practical question: are government resources being used as effectively as they could be? The system connects workforce data, financial resources and government service outputs so authorities can see…

Japan may not have dominated the first wave of the generative AI race. The physical AI era could look very different. As global technology companies continue fighting over larger models, more computing power and increasingly capable AI assistants, another competition is forming outside the browser. Robots, machines, sensors and AI systems are beginning to interact with factories, warehouses, hospitals and infrastructure in the physical world. That shift plays unusually well to Japan’s existing strengths. An analysis published by Nippon.com argues that Japan could build a serious advantage in physical AI by turning decades of manufacturing experience and frontline expertise into…

The UAE is putting another piece of its agentic AI strategy in place, and this one is about people rather than models, data centers or government platforms. Registration has opened for the seventh cohort of the UAE Artificial Intelligence Programme, with the latest intake placing heavier emphasis on generative AI and agentic AI systems. Announced by UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Sultan Al Olama, the program will run from September 2026 through January 2027. It brings together government employees, private-sector professionals, developers, engineers and business leaders who increasingly need to understand what AI deployment actually looks like…

Qatar’s artificial intelligence push is starting to produce something beyond government programs, infrastructure deals and global partnerships. New companies are beginning to build directly inside the market. Syira AI has officially started operations in Doha, opening a new office as the company positions itself around what it calls “Intelligence-as-a-Service.” Rather than selling one narrow AI product, Syira AI is taking a broader route: consulting, custom development, business automation and AI infrastructure brought together under one operation. The Doha launch puts the young company into a Qatar technology market that is getting crowded quickly, but not necessarily in the same way…

Artificial intelligence had a busy week from August 16 to 22, 2026, but the tone was different from the usual “new model, bigger benchmark” cycle. The biggest stories were about infrastructure, safety, model routing, teen protections, enterprise adoption, and the rising cost of turning AI into a normal business utility. Technology & Innovation The week’s most important technical story was not a single chatbot release. It was the growing shift toward AI systems that can route work across multiple models, instead of forcing companies to rely on one default model for every task. Snowflake announced dynamic model routing inside its…