Author: Art Ryan

Abu Dhabi, UAE — Uber announced a major strategic expansion into artificial intelligence at the Global AI Show 2025, introducing its new division AI Data Solutions — a global-scale data engine built to power the next generation of AI models across every industry. The division, led by Mohit Bhatia, Head of SMB Business, AI Data Solutions, has been developed over the past 18 months and formally launched six months ago. The Global AI Show marks the first public showcase of the new vertical in the Middle East, a region undergoing unprecedented AI-driven transformation. “Uber has always been about scale, precision,…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — Snowflake, the global Data Cloud company, reinforced its leadership in enterprise AI and data modernization at the Global AI Show Abu Dhabi. Frederick Khoury, Solution Engineer based in Dubai, showcased how Snowflake is reshaping the way organizations interpret, interact with, and operationalize their data — regardless of type, scale, or complexity. At the heart of Snowflake’s vision is Snowflake Intelligence, a groundbreaking capability that gives businesses the power to “talk to their data” using natural language. This new paradigm dramatically accelerates insights and democratizes access to advanced analytics across every industry. “We’re unlocking the ability for…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — BigBear.ai, a global leader in AI-driven decision intelligence, announced its expansion into the United Arab Emirates during the Global AI Show Abu Dhabi. Carl Napoletano, Chief Operating Officer, detailed how the company is taking artificial intelligence from experimentation to execution — transforming AI from a promising technology into a mission-ready operational capability. “For us, AI must have purpose,” Napoletano said. “When we operationalize AI — when we embed it directly into decision-making, intelligence workflows, and mission operations — it becomes a strategic asset that elevates readiness, accelerates response, and improves national and commercial outcomes.” With its…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — L3XY AI, a global HR technology innovator with over two decades of recruitment expertise, showcased its groundbreaking AI Interview Platform at the Global AI Show Abu Dhabi. Led by Roshan “Rosh” Abbas, Director of Global Operations, the company is redefining how organizations evaluate, hire, and elevate talent in a world reshaped by artificial intelligence. From the early era of paper CVs to the rapid rise of AI-generated résumés, L3XY AI has witnessed — and now leads — one of the most significant paradigm shifts in recruitment. The company’s mission is clear: to eliminate inefficiency, reduce hiring…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — [Date] — Operator AI, one of the region’s fastest-growing artificial intelligence companies, made waves at the Global AI Show Abu Dhabi as Ignacio Kindelan, Commercial Lead and Co-Founder, introduced the world’s first AI-native ERP platform — a transformative operating system designed to automate every core function of a modern business. From sales and marketing to finance, HR, and customer service, the Operator AI platform adapts to how each organization works, creating a personalized digital backbone powered by advanced AI agents, intelligent workflows, and real-time data insights. The platform differentiates itself from traditional incumbents — Salesforce, Microsoft…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — NYU Abu Dhabi captivated global audiences at the Global AI Show Abu Dhabi as Nikolaos Giakoumidis, Commercial Lead for AI and Robotics, showcased a series of pioneering advancements that unite artificial intelligence with embodied, real-world robotics. These innovations position the university as a driving force behind the UAE’s ambition to become a global leader in advanced technology, automation, and the knowledge economy. Giakoumidis explained that NYU Abu Dhabi is spearheading the next frontier of physical AI, where cognitive, perception-driven AI agents are seamlessly integrated with robots capable of navigating, interacting, and making decisions autonomously. The university’s…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — Skillsoft Global Knowledge, a global leader in instructor-led technology training, spotlighted its influential role in shaping the UAE’s AI workforce during the Global AI Show Abu Dhabi. Representing the organization, Moatasem El-Assal, Sales Manager for Global Knowledge UAE, shared insights on how the company is accelerating national digital readiness through hands-on, practical AI education. A subsidiary of Skillsoft, Global Knowledge brings decades of expertise from its U.S. origins to Europe and the Middle East, offering structured, in-person training programs in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced information technology. Its mission aligns closely with the UAE’s strategic…

Global logistics has become defined by a fundamental paradox: Like many of the world’s critical commercial functions, the sector is caught between two worlds, the analog past and digital future. Global logistics is one of the most operationally sophisticated industries underpinning commerce, coordinating ships, planes, trucks, ports, warehouses, customs authorities, and retailers across continents. But at its core, global supply chains remain stubbornly fragmented, propped up by spreadsheets, phone calls, manual reconciliations, and systems that were never designed to talk to one another. “Everybody has their own systems. All the systems are disparate, they’re not connected. And asking something simple as like, ‘Where is my stuff? Where is my shipment?’ is virtually impossible to do…

Merchants have spent much of the eCommerce era obsessed over understanding a single buyer: the human at the other end of a screen, swayed by brand storytelling, emotional triggers, intuitive design, and social proof. But a second customer class has quickly and stealthily entered the marketplace. This new customer does not browse, feel, or behave according to any of the norms that have shaped modern commerce. This customer is the AI agent. Findings in the report, “Prompt Economy™: When Bots Are the Customer,” a collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa, reveal that agentic AI tools like Amazon’s Rufus, Walmart’s Sparky, Google’s AI-enabled Chrome, and…

The traditional consumer journey from initial home project idea to completed build is notoriously inefficient, opaque and cash intensive. Retailers and construction managers are now turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to create a streamlined, digitally native decision path that dictates where and how money is spent. AI Assists Employees, Shoppers Lowe’s has deployed Mylow Companion across more than 1,700 stores, marking one of the largest rollouts of an AI assistant for in-store retail associates. The handheld tool gives employees real-time access to product specifications, project instructions and inventory status. Lowe’s said associates now rely on the system to help shoppers compare materials, clarify installation steps and locate products in categories that typically…

Adobe expects to see revenue of $25.9 billion to $26.1 billion in fiscal year 2026, saying its growth will be driven in part by the rapid adoption of its artificial intelligence-powered tools. “By advancing our innovative generative and agentic platforms and expanding our customer base, we are excited to target double-digit ARR [annual recurring revenue] growth in FY 2026,” Adobe Chair and CEO Shantanu Narayen said in a Wednesday (Dec. 10) press release. Adobe Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dan Durn added in the release, “We are confident in our ability to deliver industry-leading innovations, double-digit ARR growth and world-class profitability.” Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Adobe’s annual forecast…

Wearables, robotics and infrastructure are emerging as the next places big tech is trying to capture value in the artificial intelligence (AI) stack. This week’s developments, from Google’s smart-glasses revival to Skild AI’s acquisition talks and multibillion-dollar cloud commitments, show the stack shifting beyond models and applications. Google Revives AI Smart Glasses for 2026 Google plans to release AI-enabled smart glasses in 2026, according to CNBC. The report said the device will run on Android XR and incorporate Google’s Gemini model to deliver real-time answers, translation tools and optional augmented displays. The glasses mark Google’s return to wearables after earlier efforts…

Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved rapidly into every corner of the economy. Financial services is a flash point over whether AI will strengthen or destabilize markets, as illustrated at a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday (Dec. 10). Market operators, cloud providers, cybersecurity leaders, consumer advocates and housing-platform executives differed on policy, they shared a broad consensus: AI is already transforming risk scoring, fraud detection and financial decisioning, and those shifts require clear guardrails to ensure safety, fairness and trust. AI’s Expanding Role At the hearing, titled “From Principles to Policy: Enabling 21st Century AI Innovation in Financial Services,” Nasdaq President Tal Cohen described an industry changing at…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — [Date] — At the prestigious Global AI Show Abu Dhabi, Master Works, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading digital transformation providers, spotlighted its growing influence in the regional AI ecosystem. Representing the company, Ahmed Khaled Ezzeldin, AI Sales Manager, shared how Master Works—through its specialized AI subsidiary Nabih—is accelerating the adoption of next-generation artificial intelligence across the GCC. With six subsidiaries supporting a wide range of digital services, Master Works has positioned Nabih as the center of AI innovation, building cutting-edge systems that serve governments, airports, enterprises, and regulated industries across the region. Over the past five…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — At one of the world’s premier technology gatherings, the Global AI Show Abu Dhabi, Amira AI unveiled the next evolution of intelligent automation with its award-winning “Almost Human” platform. Positioned at the intersection of advanced conversational AI and enterprise automation, Amira AI is set to transform customer service, operational efficiency, and revenue generation for businesses across the globe. Representing the company, Andreas Wilmers described Amira AI as “a process automation platform designed to not just support customer service — but to orchestrate it.” The platform acts as an intelligent layer that integrates with virtually any communication…

Amazon plans to invest $35 billion in India through 2030 to support business expansion, artificial intelligence (AI) digitization, export growth and job creation. This will build on the $40 billion the company has already invested in India in terms of compensation to employees and development of infrastructure, it said in a Wednesday (Dec. 10) press release. Amazon’s investments to date have built fulfillment centers, transportation networks, data centers, digital payments infrastructure and technology development, according to the release. The company has digitized 12 million small businesses, enabled $20 billion in cumulative eCommerce exports and supported 2.8 million direct, indirect, induced and seasonal…

The pace at which emerging enterprises convert sales into cash has become a defining measure of resilience and competitiveness. In fact, it was the subject of a recent PYMNTS Intelligence project, the Time to Cash Index™. These firms, taking in between $250 million and $2.5 billion in annual revenue, increasingly see time to cash not as a back-office metric but as a core driver of business velocity. Of course, the executive most responsible for this time to cash velocity is the chief financial officer. That role is evolving too as CFOs take ownership of decisions that directly improve cash flow, liquidity and control. “CFOs are in the business of control,”…

Adobe said it is adding a trio of its apps to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Express and Adobe Acrobat will be directly available on the artificial intelligence (AI) startup’s chatbot, Adobe announced Wednesday (Dec. 10), letting users ask ChatGPT to create designs or edit photos and PDFs. “Adobe apps for ChatGPT build upon the company’s innovation in agentic AI, enabling everyone to easily enhance vacation photos, design event invitations and create polished, professional documents simply by describing what they want to achieve with their words,” the company said in a news release. “By combining the power of Adobe’s creative technology with ChatGPT’s conversational interface,…

The Linux Foundation has formed the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), saying the new organization aims to help ensure agentic artificial intelligence (AI) evolves transparently and collaboratively. The AAIF is a neutral, open foundation, the Linux Foundation said in a Tuesday (Dec. 9) press release. “We are seeing AI enter a new phase, as conversational systems shift to autonomous agents that can work together,” Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, said in the release. The AAIF is supported in its mission by the contributions of three technical projects: Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), which is a universal standard protocol for connecting AI models to tools, data and applications; Block’s goose,…

Google’s Gemini is reportedly outpacing OpenAI’s ChatGPT in growth, though ChatGPT still has close to twice as many users. During November, in terms of monthly active users, Gemini grew 30% to reach 346 million, while ChatGPT increased 5% to 810 million, Seeking Alpha reported Tuesday (Dec. 9), citing a paywalled article by The Information. ChatGPT also led in terms of the number of minutes per day users spend in the app, according to the report. ChatGPT users averaged 17 minutes per day, while Gemini users averaged 11 minutes per day. The Information article cited data from Sensor Tower, according to the report. Sensor Tower did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’…