CASE STUDY
We expect practical gains across functions including ESG, finance, procurement, contracts, crewing, HSSEQ and fleet support. Examples include an 80 % reduction in report creation time, faster contract and compliance reviews, quicker supplier comparisons, and meeting documentation being produced in minutes rather than through lengthy manual drafting.
The AI Champions network has been central to this progress by identifying relevant use cases, sharing success stories and helping colleagues adopt AI confidently. The principle remains clear: AI accelerates the work, while people remain responsible for the decision and the outcome.
How are you approaching governance, security and responsible AI?
We treat responsible AI as a business enabler. Clear guardrails give employees and leaders the confidence to innovate because they understand what is permitted, what requires additional review and who remains accountable.
Our approach connects AI governance with cybersecurity, privacy, enterprise risk and business ownership. Higher-impact uses receive greater scrutiny, while lower-risk productivity uses can move more quickly within defined boundaries.
We focus on protecting sensitive information, maintaining human accountability, checking the quality of important outputs and monitoring whether solutions continue to deliver their intended business outcome. The objective is not governance for its own sake; it is safe, trusted and sustainable innovation.
Are you exploring AI agents or agentic AI?
Yes, but with a practical and controlled approach. We see the strongest potential in workflows where information must be gathered from several sources, routine steps must be coordinated, and an employee currently spends significant time moving between systems or teams.
Our AI journey is an enterprise transformation enabled by trusted data, empowered people, strong processes and responsible technology. Our ambition is not simply to deploy AI, but to help ZMI operate more safely, enhance decision insights and create measurable, sustainable business value through AI.
is based on speed to value, strategic differentiation, total cost, scalability, integration, risk and long-term ownership.
What role does the CIO play in ensuring AI is seen as business transformation?
The CIO’ s role is to connect business ambition with execution. That means bringing together operations, people, information, processes, risk and technology around a shared set of outcomes. AI cannot be owned by ICT alone, because the value is realised in the business process and in the decisions employees make.
My role is to advise business function leaders to identify where AI can materially improve performance, create the enterprise capabilities and guardrails required to scale, and maintain momentum from idea through adoption and value realisation.
Success is not measured by how many tools are deployed. It is measured by whether the organisation becomes safer, faster, more informed and more effective.
How are you preparing employees for AI-driven changes?
Potential areas include employee services, operational support, document and compliance workflows, procurement coordination and knowledge-intensive administrative processes. We are particularly interested in semi-autonomous models where an agent prepares, recommends or orchestrates work, while a responsible employee approves of material decisions. Autonomy should increase only when the process, controls and accountability are sufficiently mature.
How do you decide whether to build, partner, or consume AI capabilities?
We use simple principles: differentiate where it matters and leverage where it does not.
If a proven capability is already embedded in an enterprise platform and meets our security, integration and business requirements, we use it rather than recreating it. If a capability is closely tied to ZMI’ s distinctive operating model or creates strategic intellectual property, we are more likely to build or customise it.
For complex transformation initiatives, we combine internal business knowledge with the delivery experience of selected technology partners. The decision
Technology adoption succeeds when people succeed. We have invested in AI literacy, role-based learning, practical workshops, peer support and an AI Champions network that helps translate new capabilities into the realities of each function. This creates a twoway channel: employees receive support, while the organisation learns which use cases create genuine value.
Our message is that AI augments people rather than replacing judgement, accountability or experience. The most important future skills will include critical thinking, problem framing, data literacy, responsible use of AI, verification of outputs, collaboration and change leadership.
Employees who can combine domain expertise with AI will be able to make better decisions and devote more energy to customers, safety, innovation and higher-value work. •
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INTELLIGENT CIO MIDDLE EAST www. intelligentcio. com