Shukri Eid, General Manager of IBM Gulf, Levant, and Pakistan, spoke to CNME Editor Mark Forker, ahead of Dubai AI Week, to find out what IBM will be exhibiting at the event, the role it is playing in helping the UAE achieve its lofty AI objectives, the impact of its IBM z17 solution across the enterprise space – and the need for greater governance on Gen AI.
IBM is a strategic partner of Dubai AI Week. Can you provide us with more information on what attendees can expect to see and hear from IBM during the event?
Our involvement in Dubai AI Week reflects our broader partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation and the Emirate of Dubai overall, focused on advancing AI for real-world impact. Our objective is to showcase how AI can drive productivity gains, deliver significant return on investment, and help reinvent the way organizations work in the digital age.
Over the week, IBM will host expert sessions and speaking engagements covering critical priorities for businesses on their AI journey — from identifying quick-win use cases, to building a strong data foundation with fit-for-purpose models, to ensuring trust and governance throughout the AI lifecycle.
We’ll further present early findings from the Global Chief AI Officers Study, a joint report we are working on with the Dubai Future Foundation, highlighting how global leaders are approaching AI strategy and implementation. Organizations with a CAIO see a higher ROI on AI spend compared to those without one and as per our interim findings, 26% of organizations have a CAIO and 65% of CAIOs believe most organizations will have a CAIO within the next 2 years. This is a key audience we are working with to advance AI for enterprise and government in line with UAE National AI Strategy.
Dubai has made no secret of its aspirations and ambitions to become a global leader when it comes to AI. The Dubai Universal Blueprint for AI has been engineered and designed to accelerate the adoption of AI technologies into every facet of society. IBM, as a global tech leader, has long been a partner of the UAE Government, but can you tell us the role IBM is playing in terms of achieving the goals and objectives of their AI vision?
We are proud to support Dubai and the UAE’s bold vision to become a global leader in AI. Our collaboration with leading UAE entities is focused on accelerating the adoption of AI in ways that align with national agendas and business priorities.
Globally, we’re seeing incredible momentum. Our generative AI book of business surpassed $5 billion inception-to-date, with $2 billion of that growth happening just in the last quarter. That’s a clear signal that enterprises aren’t experimenting with AI anymore—they’re implementing it at scale. And that’s exactly the kind of transformation we’re supporting in the UAE.
We recently partnered with e& to co-develop an AI governance framework, one of the region’s first, designed to help organizations in the UAE and beyond adopt AI responsibly and at scale. This framework offers practical guidance to embed governance, transparency, and accountability into every stage of the AI lifecycle.
At the World Governments Summit 2025, we signed an agreement with the Dubai Future Foundation to support the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 and the Universal Blueprint for AI. The partnership includes building a sovereign cloud, launching an AI innovation center, and deepening our role in startup mentorship, Tech Talks, and advisory services — all to help position Dubai as a global AI hub.
Additionally, we’re collaborating with the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) to apply IBM’s geospatial foundation model to map and reduce urban heat islands in Abu Dhabi. This work has already led to a reduction of over 3°C in affected areas, offering valuable insights for sustainable urban planning in a region heavily impacted by climate change.
Our ongoing collaborations in the UAE reflect IBM’s commitment to supporting national AI ambitions and helping shape a future where AI serves society responsibly and equitably.
IBM recently announced the next generation of their iconic mainframe in the form of the IBM z17, designed to bring AI to the core of the enterprise to enable new workloads. Can you outline the capabilities of this product in more detail, and the impact you believe it will have across the industry?
The IBM z17 isn’t just another iteration of our mainframe, it’s a response to how enterprise computing is evolving. So, with the z17, we’ve built AI directly into the hardware and software stack, starting with the Telum II processor. That gives it the ability to run AI models efficiently and securely, right where the data lives.
We’re seeing over 250 AI support use cases for the z17 that are very real for our clients—fraud detection that happens in milliseconds, smarter customer service with AI-powered chat, even helping radiologists interpret medical images faster. And with the new IBM Spyre Accelerator, it’s not just traditional models—we’re talking large language models and generative AI running securely, at scale.
The z17 continues to lead in security and resiliency. And with tools like watsonx Code Assistant for Z, we’re making it easier for developers to build and manage on the platform, whether they’ve been working on Z for years or are just getting started.
In short, this is about giving businesses a way to move fast with AI, without compromising on the things that matter: security, scale, and trust.
Finally, when it comes to Gen AI, understandably, there is huge excitement at the potential it has to completely transform industries, but that being said, there are growing calls for more robust frameworks and governance around AI in order to ensure it is being used responsibly. Can you give us an overview from an IBM perspective on your approach to responsible AI?
At IBM, we are deeply committed to developing AI that can be trusted to drive progress for both business and society.
Our approach to responsible AI begins with watsonx, our enterprise-ready AI and data platform, which provides the tools, governance, and transparency needed to develop and deploy AI responsibly. It helps organizations track data provenance, ensure model explainability, and mitigate bias at scale.
We also recognize that building trust in AI requires global collaboration. That’s why we co-founded the AI Alliance, a coalition of over 100 organizations across industry, academia, and government, including partners like CERN, NASA, Hugging Face, and MBZUAI. All are committed to advancing open, safe, and inclusive AI innovation. Together, we are focused on keeping AI open-source, promoting responsible development, and ensuring the benefits of AI are broadly shared.
We also actively engage with governments worldwide to shape smart, risk-based regulation that focuses on high-impact use cases rather than underlying algorithms, in order to support innovation while safeguarding society.
