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Channel Post MEA
30-07-2025
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
83% Saudi Arabian CAIOs Have Broader C-Suite Support
A new study by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) and the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) reveals that Saudi Arabia's approach to AI leadership aligns with global trends while also demonstrating distinct national priorities. The research, which surveyed over 600 Chief AI Officers (CAIOs) across 22 countries, showcases Saudi Arabia's unique strengths and opportunities for growth in AI leadership. 'Saudi Arabia's commitment to AI is evident in its adoption of CAIO roles and the support these leaders receive from senior executives,' said Fahad Alanazi, General Manager, IBM Saudi Arabia. 'This study underscores the Kingdom's strategic focus on AI, as reflected in its governance models, budget control, and a strong emphasis on building business cases for AI investments.' Key findings from the study indicate that: 22% of organizations in Saudi Arabia have adopted the CAIO role, aligning closely to the global average (26%). Saudi Arabian CAIOs have strong executive support, with 67% saying they get sufficient backing from the CEO and 83% saying they have broader C-suite support. A clear trend emerges in the professional backgrounds of Saudi CAIOs, with 75% saying they have focused on data in their careers, higher than the global average (73%). Saudi Arabia's governance model stands out, with 50% of organizations adopting a hub-and-spoke AI operating model, reflecting Vision 2030's sector-wide coordination. This aligns with global trends, where organizations using a centralized or hub-and-spoke model can achieve a 36% higher ROI on AI initiatives. The study underscores Saudi Arabia's remarkable progress in AI leadership – Saudi CAIOs presently oversee 67% of AI budgets, outpacing the global average of 61%. Moreover, CAIOs prioritize building business cases for AI, with 58% doing so, above the global average of 45%. The findings also highlight strategic opportunities to further strengthen the country's position. 38% of Saudi CAIOs were appointed from within the organization, below the global average of 57%. Prioritizing internal talent development will cultivate a resilient workforce, ensuring continual growth in AI capabilities. As Saudi Arabia continues to invest in AI leadership, these findings serve as a roadmap for honing the country's AI capabilities and maximizing the return on its AI investments.
Mint
26-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
From idea to app: How AI is leveling the field for non-technical founders
For decades, startups glorified technical brilliance. But AI tools have changed that. Technical execution has been commoditized. Think of how many ideas in the past died quietly, not because they were flawed, but because they couldn't be tested. Ideas lose energy when they wait too long for execution. Momentum dies in the hands of dependency. What most non-technical founders needed was not a technical co-founder. They needed a starting point. A place where they could move from concept to testable product without translating their thoughts through three layers of teams. The high cost of delay Most startups don't fail with a bang. They fade. Not because the idea was bad, but because it never reached the world fast enough to be tested. Microsoft's Zune failed not because it was badly built but because it came late and didn't provide people a strong reason to switch from the iPod. It skipped the most important step: testing if users actually wanted it. This is a classic example of what happens when you build first and ask questions later something modern AI-powered founders are now smart enough to avoid. In India, this delay is an even bigger threat. Over75% of Indian startups fail within the first five years, not because of bad ideas, but because of late validation and poor product-market fit. (IBM Institute for Business Value, 2022) This pattern repeats across failed decks, ghosted MVPs, and half-finished codebases. The true killer isn't competition. It's delayed validation. When the cost of learning is too high, founders build in the dark. That's what AI-native tools are designed to fix, not to build faster, but to learn faster. A new kind of founder Today, a founder can build the first version of a product in hours. Describe what you want. Click generate. A live version appears. Not a sketch. Not a simulation. An actual, hosted, working product. In India, this shift is becoming visible. Indian startups using AI-native and no-code tools are now building MVPs in as little as2-4 weeks, compared to the traditional6-9 month build cycle. The best founders are stepping into this role with maturity. They are not chasing features. They are running experiments. They are not wasting cycles on beautiful dashboards. They are looking for signals. A quiet shift underway in how digital businesses are built. It hasn't been driven by funding rounds or viral success stories. It's happening in terminal windows, browser tabs, and natural-language prompts. It's taking shape not in Silicon Valley boardrooms, but in co-working spaces, bedrooms, and one-person idea labs across the world, including rapidly emerging startup hubs like Bangalore, Pune, and Gurgaon. We used to say that code was the moat. But code has been commoditised. Today, the real moat is execution velocity. How fast can you test a new idea? How early can you get feedback? How quickly can you adapt? The rise of the AI-native founder This is where AI-native builders have an edge. They can run more experiments per week. They can test five landing pages instead of one. They can talk to real users by Day 2, not Month 2. They can pivot with data, not gut feeling. India is seeing a38% rise in solo-founder startups, driven by non-technical builders who no longer need to wait for a technical co-founder. This new wave of Indian entrepreneurs is using no-code and AI-native platforms to bypass the old bottlenecks. Globally,Gartner predicts that 75% of new apps will be built using low-code/no-code tools by 2026. In India specifically, the no-code/low-code market is expected to grow to$4 billion by 2025, expanding at28% CAGR (Research and Markets, 2024). To use AI tools effectively, you don't need to be technical but you do need to be precise. Prompts are not just instructions. They are compressed prompt reflects the founder's thinking: their assumptions, their hypotheses, and their clarity. If your thinking is vague, your prompt will be vague. And AI will reflect that vagueness. It will generate layouts that are unfocused, flows that don't align with real user behaviour, or features that sound nice but don't move the needle. Once you understand the structure of your idea, the prompt becomes sharper. And once the prompt is sharp, the AI delivers with surprising accuracy. Every product begins with a belief. A sense that a specific user, with a specific problem, will respond to a specific solution. This is the hypothesis, 'not a grand vision, just a working assumption that needs to be tested quickly". Break it down into three parts: In a world with endless tools, infinite advice, and constant distraction, the most valuable founder trait is not access, it's focus. Everyone has the same AI tools. Everyone has the same platforms. What most don't have is the discipline to say: Focus is now a rare skill. Not just knowing what to build, but knowing what to ignore. That's the job of the founder: not to chase noise, but to guard signals and to keep the mission intact while the tactics evolve. The founder of the future doesn't wait to build. They don't overthink iteration. They don't hire before testing. They don't launch without learning. They don't scale without a system. They are calm, clear, and fast. They are less concerned with being right and more focused on learning early. They use AI not as a shortcut, but as a force multiplier. They don't romanticise the build, they prioritise the signal. They move with urgency, not haste. Because in a world where everyone can build, it's not the best idea that wins it's the idea that learns the fastest. The writer is the founder of Launch, an AI-native platform for apps
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India marketing leaders under pressure, turn to AI for growth: IBM 2025 study
Highlights63% of Indian CMOs are under pressure to deliver profitability; 53% for revenue growth Only 26% believe they have the talent needed to achieve their goals for the next two years Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are under growing pressure to drive profitability and revenue growth, even as they navigate the complex demands of AI integration, ecosystem leadership, and talent transformation, reveals the IBM CMO Study findings from the global study by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) show that 63% of Indian CMOs are now accountable for delivering profitability, closely aligned with their global counterparts (64%). Additionally, 53% are directly responsible for driving revenue growth, underscoring the CMO's expanding role beyond traditional brand stewardship. Additionally, Indian CMOs are prioritizing customer experience, tech modernization, and business model innovation to future-proof their organizations, alongside scaling service delivery and marketing, and sales effectiveness. Yet, they face critical gaps in responsible AI, talent readiness, and data utilization. The findings highlight a growing disconnect between ambition and execution in the age of generative AI. 'As AI radically transforms how businesses engage, operate, and grow, Indian CMOs are uniquely positioned to lead this shift by harnessing AI responsibly,' said Tuhina Pandey, Director – APAC Communications & Marketing, India and South Asia, IBM. She added, 'While the potential of AI is clear, what's needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset, and AI augmentation.' Key India findings: Business Transformation Priorities: CMOs are focusing on Customer Experience (41%), scalability of delivery of services (37%), technology modernization (37%), marketing & sales effectiveness (34%), and business model innovation (32%) to drive future AI Gap: Only 26% of Indian CMOs have established responsible AI guidelines to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in automated Paradox: While 44% of CMOs believe their function is ready to integrate Agentic AI, only 26% believe they have the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. In India, just 23% of CMOs have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational shifts AI agents will bring. Untapped data: 63% agree that generative AI's value lies in proprietary data, yet only 1% of enterprise data is being tapped. Cross-functional silos: Only one-third of organizations have cross-functional view of the customer journey. CMOs estimate that fully aligning marketing, sales, and operations could unlock up to a 20% increase in revenue. Ecosystem focus: 62% of Indian CMOs prioritize partnerships, well above the global average of 47%.
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Indian CMOs to prioritise CX, tech modernisation and business model innovation: Study
HighlightsAccording to the IBM Chief Marketing Officer Study 2025, 63 percent of Indian Chief Marketing Officers are now accountable for delivering profitability, closely aligned with the global average of 64 percent. While 44 percent of Indian Chief Marketing Officers believe their function is ready to integrate agentic artificial intelligence, only 26 percent feel they possess the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. Indian Chief Marketing Officers excel in ecosystem focus, with 62 percent prioritizing partnerships as a strategic initiative, compared to the global average of 47 percent. The modern chief marketing officer faces a stark reality: despite commanding larger budgets and more sophisticated tools, most marketing organisations are structurally incapable of delivering the results that boards now demand. This is not merely an operational challenge, it has become an existential threat. According to the IBM CMO Study 2025 , CMOs are under growing pressure to drive profitability and revenue growth while navigating the complex demands of AI integration , ecosystem leadership and talent transformation. The findings from the global study, conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), reveal that 63 per cent of Indian CMOs are now accountable for delivering profitability, closely aligned with their global counterparts at 64 per cent. Furthermore, 53 per cent are directly responsible for driving revenue growth, signalling the CMO's expanding influence well beyond traditional brand stewardship. Indian CMOs are also prioritising future readiness. Their current focus includes customer experience , technology modernisation, and business model innovation, alongside efforts to scale service delivery and improve marketing and sales effectiveness. However, these ambitions are challenged by critical capability gaps in areas such as responsible AI, talent readiness, and data utilisation. The study highlights a widening disconnect between strategic aspiration and practical execution, particularly in the age of generative AI. 'As AI radically transforms how businesses engage, operate, and grow, Indian CMOs are uniquely positioned to lead this shift by harnessing AI responsibly,' said Tuhina Pandey, director - APAC communications and marketing, India and South Asia, IBM. She added, 'While the potential of AI is clear, what's needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset, and AI augmentation.' The study's findings in India provide sharper insight into this tension between opportunity and capability. While 44 per cent of CMOs believe their function is ready to integrate agentic AI, only 26 per cent believe they have the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. Just 23 per cent have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational shifts that AI agents are expected to bring. The data gap is equally pressing. Although 63 per cent agree that the value of generative AI lies in proprietary data, only 1 per cent of enterprise data is currently being utilised. This suggests that while the strategic direction is understood, the underlying infrastructure and readiness to support it are still lacking. Organisational silos continue to hinder progress. Only one-third of organisations report having a cross-functional view of the customer journey. CMOs estimate that achieving alignment across marketing, sales and operations could unlock up to a 20 per cent increase in revenue, yet this integration remains elusive. Indian CMOs do, however, outperform their global peers in ecosystem focus. Sixty-two per cent place partnerships as a strategic priority, well above the global average of 47 per cent. This indicates an emerging recognition that collaborative ecosystems will be central to marketing-led innovation in the years ahead. Ultimately, the role of the CMO is transforming rapidly. Expectations are rising, yet structural limitations remain. The path forward will require more than budget increases or technology upgrades. It calls for a complete rethink of operating models, anchored in responsible AI, agile talent, and cross-functional collaboration , to bridge the gap between marketing ambition and enterprise value.
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Indian CMOs under pressure to deliver profitability amid AI, talent and data challenges: IBM study
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in India are increasingly being held accountable for delivering not just brand value but also profitability and revenue growth , as they navigate the complex terrain of AI adoption , evolving customer expectations, and workforce transformation, according to the IBM CMO Study 2025 , released today by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV). The global study, conducted in partnership with Oxford Economics, reveals that 63% of Indian CMOs are now directly responsible for ensuring profitability, closely mirroring the global figure of 64%. Meanwhile, 53% of Indian CMOs are tasked with driving revenue growth, marking a significant expansion in the traditional remit of marketing leaders. 'As AI radically transforms how businesses engage, operate and grow, Indian CMOs are uniquely positioned to lead this shift by harnessing AI responsibly,' said Tuhina Pandey, Director – APAC Communications & Marketing, India and South Asia, IBM. 'While the potential of AI is clear, what's needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset and AI augmentation.' The study finds that Indian CMOs are aligning their strategies to meet both short-term performance goals and long-term transformation imperatives. They are focusing on customer experience , scalable service delivery, technology modernisation, marketing and sales effectiveness, and business model innovation. These priorities reflect a clear pivot towards future-proofing the organisation while ensuring operational efficiency and customer-centric growth. Despite the enthusiasm around generative and Agentic AI, significant challenges remain. Only 26% of Indian CMOs report having responsible AI guidelines in place to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability in automated decision-making. While 44% believe their functions are ready to adopt Agentic AI, just 26% feel confident they have the right talent to meet their goals over the next two years. Only 23% have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational changes that AI will bring. Live Events The study also finds that although 63% of Indian CMOs agree that proprietary data is key to unlocking generative AI's potential, only 1% of enterprise data is currently being utilised, a stark indication of underused digital assets. Organisational silos continue to hamper effectiveness: just one in three organisations has a cross-functional view of the customer journey, and CMOs estimate that fully aligning marketing, sales and operations could lead to a revenue uplift of up to 20%. On a more optimistic note, Indian CMOs are leading globally in forging ecosystem partnerships. Around 62% prioritise external collaboration as a strategic imperative, significantly above the global average of 47%. The IBM Institute for Business Value, in collaboration with Oxford Economics, surveyed 1,800 CMOs and Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) across 33 countries and 24 industries between March and May 2025. Although the roles of CMO and CSO were both included, findings are attributed to 'CMOs' for simplicity. The research explored executive priorities, customer experience strategies, AI and technology adoption, data usage, cross-functional alignment and talent readiness.
