Latest news with #techtransformation
Al Bawaba
3 days ago
- Business
- Al Bawaba
du announces the third edition of Envision, aiming to advance AI progress to drive the UAE's digital transformation
du, the leading telecom and digital services provider, is proud to announce the third edition of its premier technology event 'Envision', to be held on Tuesday, 9th September 2025 at Atlantis, The Royal. Envision 2025 is the definitive platform where the nation's future shapers will gather to forge a sovereign, more secure and scalable world, driven by digital infrastructure and advanced AI by the theme 'AI progress begins when leaders and technology align,' Envision 2025 will bring together UAE future makers, government, municipalities, tech partners, and industry leaders to accelerate the UAE's tech transformation in line with national goals captured in the UAE National AI Strategy. Moving into AI and machine learning, as well as cloud computing, is deemed critical for realizing the UAE's National Digital Government Strategy 2025 as highlighted at the AI Retreat at Dubai AI Week earlier this year. Envision 2025 is specially curated to catalyse discourse and action on building AI-driven smart communities, strengthening the nation's digital economy, and elevating business, economy, community, and culture through Al Hassawi, CEO of du, said: 'Envision 2025 is aligned with the nation's technology roadmap and brings to fruition the vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum who said, 'Future is not something we wait for, but something we make.' The convergence of inspired leadership and cutting-edge technology is the foundation upon which a scalable and more secure, AI-first UAE will be built. Through digitalization, AI innovation, and robust infrastructure, we are elevating business, economy, and community to new heights for the benefit of all.'Envision 2025 will offer a unique blend of interactive exhibition and expert-led conference, focusing on the digital innovation landscape powering AI-enabled smart living. Attendees will explore cutting-edge platforms and strategic discussions across AI Data Centres, Sovereign Cloud, Generative & Agentic AI, National Hyperscaler, AI GPU as a Service, Industry 4.0, Advanced Robotics, and Cloud Computing. Now in its third edition, Envision has evolved into the first-of-its-kind tech platform event in the region. This year, it will explore new business models and operational efficiencies in multiple sectors including manufacturing, healthcare, education, smart cities, retail, transport, and utilities. In addition, national and international experts will come together to ideate and forecast the potentials of advanced AI, robotics, next-gen cloud, and secure digital infrastructure to build communities that are smarter, more efficient and sustainable.
Forbes
04-08-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Harnessing Agentic AI: Enterprise Solutions For The Future
R. Srikumar is the Chief Solutions Officer at Mphasis . Not too long ago, enterprises across the globe were adopting technology gradually. Even until a few years ago, they still had the flexibility to take their time exploring the best options to enhance efficiency, streamline operations or come up with new offerings. But with GenAI's arrival, the picture is changing rapidly. We are now seeing the world experiencing the power of artificial intelligence and responding to it swiftly. GenAI shifted the gears of tech transformation and accelerated its pace, pushing enterprises not only to quickly adopt it but also to ask themselves: What's next? What more can we do to deliver seamless customer experiences, scale operations, reduce human intervention, cut costs and gain a competitive edge after GenAI? The answer appears to lie in agentic AI. So, what is agentic AI? How is it different from GenAI, which is already capable of automating tasks, generating content and freeing up human resources for more strategic tasks? What makes agentic AI the next big thing after GenAI is its ability to make decisions and take actions on its own. With agentic AI, you're not just getting answers—you're getting solutions. What's more, agentic AI operates autonomously, optimizing goals like sales, improving customer satisfaction or supply chain efficiency. It doesn't just respond; it searches databases, triggers workflows and executes tasks without constant input. This makes it a powerful tool for businesses seeking efficiency, automation and smarter decisions. It is no wonder then that in 2024, the agentic AI market was valued at a whopping $5.1 billion and is projected to exceed $47 billion within the next few years. Understanding Agentic AI's Features And Benefits Let's look at a couple of ways agentic AI could transform the business ecosystem. For instance, when an employee raises a ticket about a slow IT system, a GenAI tool might suggest troubleshooting steps or fixes, still requiring some human intervention. Agentic AI can diagnose the problem, run a solution and notify the user once resolved. The result? Faster processes and improved employee satisfaction with minimal human intervention. Agentic AI can help enterprises with myriad processes, from generating meeting notes and summaries to employee onboarding and reviews, while automating tasks. It offloads repetitive workloads, enabling employees to focus on strategic tasks like growth, innovation and enhancing customer experiences. Another benefit agentic AI brings is adaptability. These tools gather and analyze data from diverse sources, adjust strategies based on new information or changing environments, identify patterns, generate insights and enhance decision making. Businesses stand to gain greatly from their personalization and communication abilities. This is because agentic AI enables enterprises to significantly elevate customer experiences by proactively addressing pain points before they escalate. By analyzing vast amounts of past data, identifying patterns and understanding natural human language, these AI agents can anticipate customer needs and deliver personalized, timely solutions. Compared to GenAI, which generates responses based on data and historical records, agentic AI can produce solutions and take action to resolve issues autonomously. This proactive approach fosters a sense of being understood and valued, leading to increased customer satisfaction. When customers consistently experience seamless, efficient and personalized interactions, they develop a stronger affinity toward the enterprise, driving long-term loyalty and solidifying a positive brand perception. Why Enterprises Should Consider Adopting Agentic AI The capabilities of agentic AI are valuable across industries such as financial services, manufacturing, business process outsourcing (BPO) and others where automation and precision are critical for success. According to Gartner, up to 33% of all enterprise software applications will incorporate agentic AI by 2028, a significant jump from less than 1% in 2024. In financial services, agentic AI strengthens fraud detection and compliance by identifying suspicious activities in customer accounts. By autonomously analyzing transaction patterns and detecting anomalies, it helps financial institutions mitigate risks and ensure regulatory compliance. The manufacturing sector is also benefiting from agentic AI. Using sensor data from machines and components, AI agents predict maintenance needs, optimize workflows and refine product design. In the BPO industry, enterprises are leveraging agentic AI to optimize contact centers. Traditional solutions like IVR improved efficiency, but AI-driven automation goes further by reducing dependence on human agents. The possibilities with agentic AI are vast. According to Gartner, it is expected to autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues by 2029, without human intervention. This could cut operational costs by up to 30%. Balancing Power And Responsibility: Mitigating The Pitfalls Agentic AI offers remarkable autonomy and can deliver powerful outcomes. However, its implementation also requires careful consideration of potential risks. For instance, agentic AI can make biased decisions if trained on historical data embedded with prejudices. Take hiring processes as an example: An agentic AI trained on biased historical data may automatically reject applications based on gender, race or color. For safe, ethical and effective deployment of agentic AI, organizations must adopt a well-rounded approach that includes strong governance and accountability frameworks. Such frameworks ensure that autonomous systems operate within defined ethical and operational boundaries, with clearly assigned responsibilities. To address algorithmic bias, it is essential to use diverse, current datasets and regularly validate models for fairness and accuracy. On the data protection front, regular security audits and strict adherence to data privacy regulations can significantly enhance safeguards for sensitive information. Ultimately, this perspective must be promoted: While AI can perform tasks independently, it is still a collaborative tool—like a colleague—that helps make work more efficient and impactful. Striking the right balance between AI and human input not only establishes effective oversight but also enables employees to understand and benefit from its true potential. Today, as the world focuses on advancements to improve human-machine interactions, agentic AI emerges as the next big step to help companies become more agile, responsive and innovative. The potential is immense, but like any other technology, the implementation will involve overcoming multiple challenges. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Executives Can Make Tough IT Decisions When Budgets Are Cut
As tariffs loom, companies are making as many changes as they can to keep their goods and services on the market without losing profits, but budget cuts are on the table everywhere. And while the vast majority of companies are putting a priority on tech transformation, it's likely that IT budgets are among the first things cut. I talked to two executives at enterprise tech consulting firm Rimini Street—CEO Seth Ravin and CFO Michael Perica—about how companies can cut their IT budgets without sacrificing technological advancements. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity. It was excerpted in the Forbes CFO newsletter. Every survey of companies I have seen this year shows overwhelmingly companies all plan to spend more on their tech—though these surveys were likely done before the economy became so uncertain. Do you think they will cut spending? Ravin: Oh yeah. I'm absolutely seeing [cuts of] 20%, 30%. Perica: Folks are having to do multiple scenario analysis and reallocation of capital spend, none of which would entail a nice-to-have-it next generation project that has ROIs in the distance, when I'm going to likely have to make incremental foreign direct investments to adjust my supply chain, and make significant moves that require significant upfront capital. We have expertise in all jurisdictions where we are assisting clients to turn up with their stable existing systems to be flexible in these multiple scenarios where they have to go with their supply chain. Not only just building but sourcing. That's what's forgotten a lot in these scenarios here: To source differently, and using a stable system. Having an enterprise-wide approach to put the next generation technology on top, there is an opportunity to make an investment where dollars would exist with our offering, and then still make those other unforecasted cap-ex needs because of this tariff confusion. Rimini Street CEO Seth Ravin and CFO Michael Perica. Rimini Street About how much does your average company spend on tech that they don't need, like outmoded programs, updates, unused logins? Ravin: I would be surprised if you didn't see at least 30% wastage—or more—in the IT budget. We believe even we have 30% we can take out. About 30% to 50% could be cut and streamlined in the years ahead. How do companies rack up so much in IT contracts that they continue to pay for and don't need? Ravin: Most of it is because you have a bunch of different IT groups, and because a lot of this stuff is SaaS now, you have someone in a department who charges a new piece of software on a credit card. It doesn't even go through IT. IT departments are chasing down purchases that they didn't even authorize. They've had a hell of a time pulling it all together and figuring out what it is. We just went through an exercise, Michael and his team, to say: We know what the IT budget is. How much are we really spending on IT? We went department by department and sure enough, we found about 30% more than the actual budget as IT. We have a plan with our new CIO. He's restructuring IT. We're going to go ferret out all the individual IT stuff. We're going to pull it together, streamline it. We're going to do exactly what our work with our customers is. It just happens. Companies in general, you build up a lot of costs you didn't know about, and then you have to go through a purging exercise to streamline. These are healthy cycles because we all accumulate stuff. Perica: When you enter into [a software agreement], you typically overbuy, you don't use it entirely. You have cost overruns. I have greater capital, then I have greater depreciation, then I have so many more applications than I need, then I have to go through upgrade cycles if you're listening to the vendor. Those, shockingly, would be easy for organizations to find. One would not have to look too deep. Ravin: Every software company right now is asking its customers to do big migrations and upgrades. If you're Salesforce, I want you to put in Lightning and our AI agents. If you're SAP, I want you to mandatorily upgrade to S/4HANA for potentially hundreds of millions in costs. Microsoft wants you to do Windows 11 across 27,000 workstations. They're sitting there with hundreds of applications and there's literally not enough people, time and money to do everything every one of these vendors wants you to do. The reality is for most companies, these changes are work projects. They really don't change the trajectory of the company. If I change out my payroll system that's working, are my employees going to be happier because the direct deposits somehow comes from a different company? They don't care. If it's working and it's accurate and it lands in their account on time, then they're happy. So what are you going to get out of the change for millions of dollars of the payroll system if it doesn't actually improve your business in a way that makes you more competitively advantaged or helps drive your costs down? There's so many of these projects being asked of the CIO and the CFO, their heads are spinning. Perica: What he just described was the normal operating procedure—and the challenge—prior to 'Liberation Day.' To shift the supply chain—and I did it in a prior CFO chair—the IT organization is a critical component. To have even one major upgrade project that's not going to have impact on operation, other than disruption, because it's forced by the vendor, is just going to be compounding in this environment where one needs to be flexible. The IT organization has to be in lockstep with the operation side to be flexible, to assist with scenario analysis and be ready to move swiftly when there is a plan that has been decided at the C-suite and board level on how to manage one's supply chain. We're at the dawn of bringing AI into businesses, and everything that I've read from analysts and experts has said the same thing about bringing AI to the enterprise level: Companies that get AI and get IT entrenched in it will be the ones who move ahead. If you don't, you're going to be catching up. As IT budgets are going down, how can businesses cut costs and bring AI into their systems? Ravin: There is only so much people, time and money. That's the only three ingredients we have in it to bake a pie. They're all limited things, and most CIOs would love to do every upgrade known to mankind. It's their nature. They want the latest, greatest of every piece of software and everything else. But then the reality of the world sets in. There's only so many people. There's only so much time and there's only so much money, so they reluctantly have to make decisions. The point we're at right now is if you try to follow the roadmap of all of your software vendors, you couldn't possibly do the innovation you need because you'd be busy doing upgrades to stuff you don't need. This is a moment for Rimini Street's smart path methodology, which is really just saying, look, we're going to have to make some tough decisions. You're going to have to say, 'I'd love a new car every three years, but you know what? This car is good for 15 years. I'm going to have to drive it maybe for 10, and I don't get a new car every three years because I'm going to spend my money on some of this new AI technology instead.' You have to be willing to make the tough decisions. And I really think if I were to distill down the lesson for your article, the lesson is you're going to be making more tough decisions in IT than you have ever had to make. This is a time when you have to have the strength of CIOs and CFOs who are really the backbone on this. The CFO, their nature is everyone's ripping me off. Do we really need to spend money on that? It's the nature of your role. It's who you are. Perica: They don't call me to say hello. They call to get more money. You say IT groups want to put AI into their systems. That's what the vendor tells you. And that's one of the biggest mistakes you can make. We espouse the approach of have AI enterprise wide. Extract the data from your existing system, put it at the user layer or the data layer, and then invest in the AI on top. Vendors are talking about: Here's our AI on this platform, here's our AI on that platform. They're different models, trained in different ways. They give you different answers. You have your hallucinations set in the AI system. The innovation is get your data in one place—all the data, all the information—get it consistent, and then put the model on top as it evolves. Invest there. It's drastically, radically more economical to have this approach. And you're going to get better information from your queries. For a company that is beginning this journey on their own, how do they determine what might be the right things to upgrade, what might be the right things to just keep going with, and what might be the right things to just get rid of? Ravin: The first thing you've got to do is get your full portfolio list together. You have to understand everything you're running because the next step is to go line by line to figure out what I think I could run for longer, which things I think I might need to change out. We help them with this methodology because they don't always understand: If I run Windows 10 longer, does that have any impact on any of my other connectivity? These are things that they didn't think they could do because the vendor's pushing them to make mandatory upgrades. If you're looking at the ERP, you want to know: How am I going to secure it for another 10 years? How am I going to make sure it'll work with other products over the next 10 years, and how will I make sure that I stay compliant with tax, legal and regulatory changes? If I can solve all those things and get support for it, then I would be in a position to say I could use that. If you're going to drive your car another 10 years, we want to make sure there's going to be parts available. We want to make sure there's going to be mechanics that'll know how to fix it. In today's situation, how important is fast ROI on your tech systems? Ravin: You go through these cycles. We were through the 2001 dot-com bubble, the 2007 meltdown, the 2021 pandemic. Even though our smart path is a 1, 2, 3: cut costs, reinvest them, streamline systems, and then buy the new technology [with the savings] and use that money, so you don't spend any more than your full budget today. Depending on the company, there could be some that want to jump immediately to that transformation because there's really something there that can help. One of our clients just implemented [robotic process] automation. They automated one task, and they went from 130 people doing one job down to 80. How many guys out there in this market and environment wouldn't love to see things happen like that in their business? And that comes from transformation. Some companies will want to race through, so they'll want to quickly cut costs, quickly streamline and then move immediately to get that done. Others which are just super cost sensitive, like their retailers with their 1% margin, may linger more on the savings for now. They may say, 'Right now, we just have to cut costs in order to be viable. And so we're going to do the cost cutting. We will slow-play a little bit on the system streamlining and doing the next phase of transformation.' I think people will move at different paces depending on which layer they think will generate the best returns for them. But the No. 1 thing: You always have to have an immediate return, even if that is just cost savings. Perica: There's been so much investment, so much promise of the medium and long term. We all see the business analysis, and usually it misses. The time is now, as Seth noted, that the actions have to lead to definitive near term savings with these automation tools and the need to utilize properly and efficiently what I've already put in place. On top of that, never has there been a better time to achieve an immediate ROI, not only from your existing assets that you are running. It can run better. Trust us. Ravin: It may not be a fun time for a lot of people in the workforce. I've been traveling the world and doing a lot of meetings with various leaders of major companies. I'll tell you, even governments like in Malaysia and Indonesia, they recognize now that AI with agents can replace people doing tasks on this administrative layer. People who keep the wheels turning, move the papers, do the approvals, 40% could come out of the workforce with the technology we already have. It's stunning. It's like another industrial revolution. Every government is concerned about what are we going to do with all these people whose jobs may get literally displaced by an AI agent doing the work for them. It is a really big social issue, a big economic issue, and you're going to see it come forward a lot. There's the amazing things we can do, but boy, the impact is going to be on people. It's the bigger picture. It's wonderful what we're able to do, but there will be impact to society that's going to happen, and very fast.
