Technology leaders celebrated at the GovTech Innovation Awards 2024

CPI Media Group and tahawultech.com hosted the 5th edition of the GovTech Innovation Awards 2024, at the Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, The Palm – Dubai, where they honoured the technology trailblazers from the public sector that are leveraging technology to transform citizen experiences.

The awards were expertly moderated by MC Katie Overy, and before the awards ceremony took place the audience heard a brilliant presentation from  Shijeesh Sahadevan, Senior Systems Architect at HPE Aruba Networking.

Shijeesh Sahadevan is one of the most prominent WAN and Security Transformation Experts across the region, and his presentation was entitled – Redefining Security and WAN Connectivity for the New Digital Era. 

Following his presentation, CNME Editor Mark Forker moderated a panel discussion that examined and explored what impact the Dubai Universal Blueprint for AI was going to have on the technology ecosystem across Dubai.

He was joined on the panel by;

• Maitha Alnuaimi – Director – GIS Center Department at Dubai Municipality
• Harriet de Morton – Business Development Manager – MEA at HPE Aruba Networking
• Dr. Mohammad Al Hassan – Safe Digital and Transformation Thought Leader

All of the panellists provided brilliant insights into the measures that need to be taken in order to make the Dubai Universal Blueprint for AI a reality.

Harriet de Morton highlighted the need for businesses to really adopt a cloud-first approach in order to accelerate the adoption of AI across.

“Businesses need to adopt a cloud-first approach when it comes to AI, but there remains a lot of valid concerns around technologies like Open AI, in terms of accuracy, but more importantly data privacy. I do think that a zero-trust approach needs to be taken in order to accelerate the integration and implementation of AI,” said Horton.

Her sentiments were echoed by Dr. Mohammad Al Hassan, who he stressed the need for cybersecurity to be baked into every AI application.

“You can’t develop an AI application or use-case, and they think about security afterwards, they have to be aligned. You need to use AI responsibly, and we need safe AI. Once we determine the use-cases in each industry vertical, and follows the best practices then you’ll start to see an increase in the adoption of AI,” said Al Hassan.

Maitha Alnuaimi talked about how Dubai Municipality was on a journey when it came to AI, citing the data-heavy legacy the organisation has.

“We are definitely on a journey when it comes to developing our AI models and applications to improve the services we provide. We are the oldest government entity in Dubai having been established 1954, so you can just imagine the vast amounts of data that we have, but we need to make sure we train our AI models not to have bias, but it is a challenge. However, the Dubai Universal Blueprint for AI is an incredible program, and we are excited about it and it will undoubtedly help all government entities harness the potential of AI technology going forward,”

Kausar Syed, Group Publishing Director at CPI Media Group, said that the government leaders being honoured at the awards had shown remarkable leadership over the last 12 months.

Syed said, “The speed and scale of digital transformation across Dubai is incredible and unprecedented, and that is down to the leadership of the Dubai government, coupled with the support of the government entities and technology community creating an ecosystem and environment that allows innovation to flourish. Tonight, we also celebrated government entities from Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, who are committed to transforming citizen experiences. On behalf of CPI Media Group, we’d like to once again sincerely congratulate all our deserving winners,” said Syed.

The full list of GovTech Innovation Award Winners are outlined below;

Abdul Majid Shaikh, Emirates Group – Knowledge and Innovation Leader of the Year