Author: Art Ryan

Dubai, UAE — The distinction between Generative AI, which creates, and Agentic AI, which acts, defined one of the most forward-looking conversations at DATE MENA 2025 during the deep-dive session titled “The Autonomous Revolution.” The session delivered a clear message: industries are moving beyond conversational AI and traditional automation — and into a new era of autonomous systems that solve complex problems without human intervention. A New Frontier: From Automation to True Autonomy The discussion, held on the DATE MENA main stage, explored how autonomous technologies are already transforming operations in retail, industrial production, and enterprise-scale decision systems. Moderated by…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — December 2025 — With just 11 days remaining, anticipation is building worldwide for the Global AI Show 2025, the landmark gathering that will bring together the most influential voices in artificial intelligence, emerging technology, policy, and investment. Taking place on December 8-9, 2025 at the state-of-the-art Space42 Arena in Abu Dhabi, the Global AI Show is poised to become one of the year’s defining events for the AI industry. Organized by VAP Group in collaboration with Times of AI, the show is expected to attract 5,000+ attendees, 200+ global AI leaders, hundreds of technology innovators and…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — October 2025 — The highly anticipated Global Games Show 2025 has officially unveiled its first wave of elite speakers, setting the stage for one of the most influential gaming events of the coming year. Taking place on December 10–11, 2025 at the state-of-the-art Space42 Arena in Abu Dhabi, the event is organized by VAP Group in partnership with Times of Games, with strong support from the Abu Dhabi Convention & Exhibition Bureau. Building on its successful inaugural edition, Global Games Show 2025 returns with a bold mission: to redefine the future of gaming, esports, immersive entertainment,…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — December 10–11, 2025 — The global gaming industry will turn its eyes to the United Arab Emirates as Global Games Show 2025 lands in Abu Dhabi for a spectacular two-day showcase of the future of gaming, esports, and immersive entertainment. Hosted by VAP Group in partnership with Times of Games, and supported by the Abu Dhabi Convention & Exhibition Bureau, the event will take place at the cutting-edge Space42 Arena, one of the region’s most advanced venues for next-generation technology events. Positioned as the premier gaming summit of the year, Global Games Show 2025 is designed…

Dubai, UAE — DATE MENA opened with extraordinary energy on Day 1, delivering packed halls, high-level networking, and tangible business outcomes that set a new standard for technology events in the Middle East. From breakthrough discussions to real deal-making, the summit has already reshaped expectations for what a regional tech conference can achieve. As attendees, speakers and partners praised the intensity and quality of engagement on Day 1, excitement continues to build for Day 2 — now officially open for registration. Unmatched Momentum: Day 1 Highlights With rooms filled to capacity and attendees representing government, enterprise, investment and emerging tech…

Procure Ai has secured $13 million in a seed round to expand its engineering organization, strengthen its go-to-market teams and enter more European countries. Currently focused on Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the company aims to expand to the United Kingdom, the Nordic countries, the Benelux countries and France, it said in a Wednesday (Nov. 26) post on LinkedIn and in a blog post. Procure Ai offers artificial intelligence-native procurement automation solutions that cover “all processes and use cases where AI can make a real difference,” according to the blog post. Rather than replacing customers’ existing systems, Procure Ai’s platform integrates and enriches fragmented procurement…

Anthropic says its latest research suggests current-generation AI systems could help accelerate U.S. labor productivity growth to 1.8% annually if the technology reaches widespread adoption over the next 10 years. That figure that would nearly double the growth rate since 2019, according to the AI company’s newly released productivity research. The findings, based on conversations with Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, come as companies are already using AI to handle everyday tasks like scanning documents, reviewing customer conversations and creating quick summaries for employees. Anthropic’s research says artificial intelligence could raise labor productivity by 1.8% a year. When that increase flows through the…

Dubai, UAE — A defining moment for enterprise technology unfolded today at DATE MENA, where one of the event’s most practical and hard-hitting sessions reframed how business leaders must approach artificial intelligence. In a packed auditorium, Akhil Koka, CEO of Magure, delivered a candid, high-clarity session titled “From Hype to Reality,” aimed squarely at the C-suite’s most urgent question: What AI is actually delivering measurable business value right now? His message was unequivocal:The era of AI experimentation is over. The era of AI value has begun. A C-Suite Wake-Up Call: AI Must Move Out of the Lab and Into the…

Dubai, UAE — A major inflection point in deep-tech innovation unfolded today at DATE MENA, where an expert panel delivered one of the event’s most anticipated clarifications on the global question: “How Soon Is Soon?” for quantum disruption. The verdict was resounding — the Quantum Era is no longer a distant horizon. For key industries, the preparation window has already begun. In a packed session, three of the world’s leading quantum strategists and technologists — André König (Global Quantum Intelligence), Dr. Pramod Kumar (QuantLase), and Dr. Satyam Priyadarshy (Reignite Future) — offered a sobering, 360-degree assessment of the current state…

As AI agents grow in popularity, retailers are reportedly spending to attract their attention. “We’ve seen brands that previously were putting out three or four new blog posts or articles a month, are now trying to do 100 or 200,” Brian Stempeck, chief executive at generative engine optimization platform Evertune.ai, told Reuters Wednesday (Nov. 26). That company, the report says, works with companies to make their websites more discoverable by artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs), charging roughly $3,000 a month to customers that include shoe and apparel sellers. As Reuters notes, retailers had traditionally based their ad placements with Meta and Google…

Walmart is reportedly considering placing ads in its artificial intelligence (AI) shopping assistant, Sparky. The retailer tested a potential ad format from September to early November and is now considering how to proceed, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (Nov. 25), citing a Walmart sales presentation. One possible format is a “sponsored prompt” that when clicked by the user, responds with an answer and a click-to-buy ad, according to the report. Rival retailer Amazon recently added sponsored prompts to its AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, in North America, per the report. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in October that its shopping assistant is now tied to 250 million active customers. “Customers using…

Tech investor Carles Reina has launched a fund focusing on artificial intelligence, robotics and defense. The $15 million Baobab Ventures fund will focus on pre-seed and seed technical teams and has already closed seven deals, Reina wrote in a LinkedIn post Wednesday (Nov. 26). “The thesis for Baobab is simple: Building companies has dramatically changed over the past 3 years. What previously worked is no longer useful,” wrote Reina, who has invested in Revolut and ElevenLabs. In an interview with Tech Funding News, Reina said he works alongside founders on market strategy, hiring, operations and sales execution at a time when launching a startup no longer means what it…

OpenAI reportedly expects ChatGPT to have at least 220 million paid subscribers by 2030, up from 35 million today. The artificial intelligence (AI) startup also projects that the percentage of weekly users of the AI assistant who become paid subscribers will grow to 8.5% by 2030, up from 5% currently, Reuters reported Wednesday (Nov. 26), citing a paywalled article by The Information. OpenAI expects about 20% of its revenue to come from new products related to shopping and advertising, according to the report. For example, the personal shopping assistant for ChatGPT that was released this week could enable monetization through ads or commissions, the report said. It…

Two major artificial intelligence (AI) releases landed less than a week apart. Google introduced Gemini 3 on Nov. 18, presenting the model as a major step forward in multimodal reasoning and visual understanding. PYMNTS reported that the launch marked a deeper shift in Google’s approach to AI and reflected its push to regain leadership in the sector. Anthropic followed six days later with Claude Opus 4.5, saying the model outperformed every human candidate on its internal engineering assessment, a claim the company detailed in its official announcement. Both companies lowered the cost of running their newest models after redesigning their systems to operate more efficiently. Anthropic cut the price of Claude Opus…

Researchers at Imperial College London and Ant Group, part of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group, introduced a new method for training groups of artificial intelligence (AI) agents to work together on complex tasks, presenting a framework that coordinates a main agent that plans steps and sub-agents that operate tools. The team detailed the approach, called M-GRPO, in a paper released this month and evaluated the system across three real-world benchmarks that measure multi-step reasoning and tool use. Single Agent Systems Face Coordination Limits Most current tools using AI systems rely on a single agent to handle planning, reasoning and tool execution. They…

Google’s release of its Agent Payments Protocol marks an incremental shift in how commerce will operate, and toward an automatic future when it comes to transactions. In its announcement of Agent Payments Protocol, Google outlines a framework in which artificial intelligence (AI) agents can initiate transactions on behalf of users. PYMNTS coverage in the wake of that September announcement explains the model as one that enables agents to compare products, act on delegated instructions and complete purchases without a human clicking to confirm. For banks and payments providers, this introduces a payer type the system never anticipated. The Way it Stands Now The payments ecosystem is…

PayPal and Perplexity introduced on Tuesday (Nov. 25) Instant Buy, which allows U.S. consumers to complete purchases directly in Perplexity’s AI chat, creating a single flow from product discovery to checkout. The companies said the feature streamlines online shopping by turning conversational queries into purchase-ready actions. Instant Buy uses PayPal’s identity, payments, and buyer protection systems while keeping the merchant of record with retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Fabletics, Ashley Furniture, and NewEgg. The companies said the setup preserves direct customer relationships while allowing merchants to participate in AI-driven commerce without building custom integrations. To mark the launch, PayPal is offering…

Dubai, UAE — A major inflection point in the UAE’s digital and sustainability journey was witnessed today at DATE MENA, where regional and global leaders gathered for one of the event’s most pivotal sessions: “The Digital Triad of UAE.” On stage, two of the country’s most influential strategic thinkers — H.E. Maher Al Kaabi of the Al Serkal Group and the UAE Circular Economy Council, and Eng. Ahmed Refaie, CEO of G.P.I. Investments — revealed a bold, integrated blueprint shaping the nation’s economic and technological direction for the next decade. In a session described by delegates as a “national vision…

Dubai, UAE — The region’s most influential technology and innovation summit has officially begun. The Digital Acceleration & Technology Expo Dubai 2025 (DATE Dubai 2025) opened its doors this morning at Madinat Jumeirah, gathering global leaders, top enterprises, government innovators, investors and tech pioneers for two days of high-impact dialogue and discovery. Running 26–27 November 2025, this year’s edition arrives at a decisive moment for regional and global markets, as organizations race to integrate artificial intelligence, strengthen digital resilience and build future-ready business models. The overarching theme, “Human Potential Meets Digital Possibilities,” underscores the powerful shift toward AI-augmented decision-making, digital-first…

Companies are replacing large language models (LLMs) with smaller, specialized micro agents that handle tasks faster and more accurately. The move comes after early use showed that focused agents outperformed general-purpose models on cost, reliability and speed. LLMs entered the market as all-purpose systems capable of answering open-ended questions, generating documents and assisting with research. Many companies initially attempted to build entire workflows around them. But over time, those attempts showed clear limitations. Broad models often required significant compute power, introduced latency during high-volume periods and produced uneven results when asked to perform industry-specific work. Micro agents have emerged as an…