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EDITOR ’ S NOTE
Happy new year and greetings to the readers of Intelligent CIO Middle East . Traditionally the first edition of the year is meant to carry forecasts and predictions for the rest of the year across a wide range of industry topics . However , this year Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI are impacting almost every aspect of the infotech industry and dominate the forecasts and predictions .
According to Gartner ’ s Daryl Plummer , digital immersion will also negatively impact social skills , especially among younger generations that are more susceptible to these trends . The isolating effects of digital immersion will lead to a disjointed workforce causing enterprises to see a significant drop in productivity from their employees and associates . This is one of the most impactful predictions for the years ahead .
To realise AI ’ s full potential and the rise of agentic architecture , enterprises must upgrade their infrastructure , everything from data centres to AI PCs . This distributed infrastructure optimised for agentic AI can address security and sustainability , by distributing the AI workload across the entire IT infrastructure says John Roese at Dell Technologies .
We now see the AI PC not just as a client device but part of the end-to-end AI infrastructure . With agentic architectures , we expect to shift agents out of the data centre and onto the Edge or to the AI PC . We expect customers to adopt Zero Trust by default in new AI factories for optimal security , adds Roese .
The continuous social obsession with digital devices and social media finally begins to impact the global social fabric . Gartner predicts that by 2028 , about one billion people will be affected by digital addiction , which will lead to decreased productivity , increased stress and a spike in mental health disorders such anxiety and depression .
Turn these pages to read more about the adoption of digital and business transformation across leading regional enterprises .
And in this month ’ s cover feature we look at how Dr Chaouki Kasmi , as the Chief Innovation Officer at Technology Innovation Institute , is transforming ideas and research into solutions . Dr Kasmi is fostering a collaborative environment for cutting-edge research across all the ten research centres and oversees the teams , defines strategic priorities , and aligns initiatives with national and global technology goals .
As we close the pages on 2024 , we wish you the best of business and transformational success in 2025 .
Arun Shankar Managing Editor arun @ lynchpinmedia . com
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