years: 2026

Dubai, UAE, March 30, 2026 – Swisslog, a leading provider of data-driven warehouse automation technology, is expanding its automated storage and retrieval portfolio for pallet solutions with AgileStore, a next generation roaming pallet shuttle (4-way shuttle). The system is designed to maximize storage density, optimize space, and enable flexible, fully automated material flows.

With AgileStore, Swisslog completes its pallet ASRS portfolio. It strengthens the company’s ASRS offering by adding a roaming pallet shuttle system alongside its established PowerStore bi-directional pallet shuttle system and Vectura pallet stacker crane.

Flexible, high performance warehouse automation

AgileStore enables multidirectional travel—forward, backward, cross-aisle, and vertical. This allows each shuttle to move independently across the system and improves how pallet movement is managed.

The 4-way shuttle supports flexible pallet storage and adapts to changing demand. It is particularly effective in warehouse environments with irregular geometries, where traditional aisle-based systems limit flexibility. It enables high-density storage with dynamic access across deep lanes and mixed SKU environments, without the need for structural changes.

The roaming shuttles work with integrated lift systems that move both shuttles and pallets between racking levels, supporting efficient load transfer and storage. Each shuttle can reach any location in the system, reducing manual interventions and supporting dynamic routing and workload balancing. This also improves space utilization across the warehouse.

As part of a pallet ASRS system, AgileStore uses automation and control software to manage storage and retrieval, reducing forklift use, and maintain inventory accuracy.

“Warehouses today need automation systems that go beyond traditional shuttle limitations,” said Alexander Leitner, EVP Strategy & Markets, Swisslog. “The roaming pallet shuttle moves across aisles and levels, enabling efficient pallet handling, and scalable performance as storage needs evolve.” 

System capabilities and applications

Swisslog is partnering with Eurofork as the supplier of roaming pallet shuttle technology and automation systems. Eurofork has already deployed multiple installations worldwide, demonstrating strong market adoption, reliable warehouse operations, and proven automation performance.

The system supports a wide range of pallet types, including EURO, Industry, CHEP Block, CP1, CP2, CP3 and GMA. It handles loads up to 1,500 kg, ensuring safe storage and full load control.

AgileStore operates in both ambient and cold storage environments, down to -30 °C, making it well-suited for food & beverage, grocery and 3PL providers that require dependable pallet storage and accurate inventory. In cold storage environments, the system controls traffic, load sequencing, and pallet flow to protect goods, maintain throughput, reduce forklift travel, as well as minimizing manual handling.

“With its reliable performance in both ambient and deep-freeze environments, AgileStore delivers the versatility that today’s diverse warehouse operations demand,” said Maurizio Traversa, CEO Eurofork.

Software integration and scalable design

AgileStore integrates seamlessly with Swisslog’s software ecosystem, supporting warehouse automation, and real-time control for pallet storage and inventory visibility.

The control software of the roaming pallet shuttle with advanced traffic management optimizes the system’s performance across shuttles and lifts, while storage and retrieval strategies are executed via control interfaces to Swisslog’s intralogistics platform SynQ (or any standard WMS software). These software capabilities work towards ensuring accurate inventory control across the warehouse, maximizing both space utilization and operational reliability.

Underlying all of this is a modular design built around purpose-built racking, highspeed lifts, and roaming shuttles, each with continuous WiFi connectivity for a safe, coordinated operation. This architecture scales readily as storage needs evolve, making AgileStore equally suited to current demands and future growth.

Dubai, UAE, March 25, 2026 — Alteryx, Inc., a leading AI-ready data analytics company, today announced the launch of an updated Alteryx Academy, reimagined to support professionals at every stage of their careers. Now available, the Alteryx Academy platform serves as a personalized hub for learning, growth, and discovery, bringing together education, credentials, and resources in a single connected experience.

As AI continues to reshape the analytics profession, 90% of analysts believe that AI will facilitate the growth of their careers. The Middle East is also poised for enormous AI talent growth, with the UAE and KSA among the strongest global markets for AI hiring, showing growth of 39% and 26% year on year. Alteryx is addressing this opportunity by refreshing its Academy as a centralized, personalized learning platform that equips professionals with the skills they need to succeed in the rapidly evolving world of AI and analytics.

With a growing global community of more than 750,000 members, Alteryx continues to invest in education and enablement for its users to help analytics professionals keep pace with rapid innovation in AI and data analytics. Designed with continuous learning at the core, the redesigned Academy experience supports everyone from those just getting started in analytics to advanced users looking to deepen their expertise. Alteryx Academy’s new design, guided pathways, and credentialing make learning easier, more practical, and rewarding. With 82% of Middle East employees saying that AI has improved their productivity, this reflects the growing need for practical learning that helps professionals keep pace with change.

“At Alteryx, we know that empowering our customers and community with the right skills is key to accelerating time to value and driving real impact,” said Bill Tabbit-Humphrey, Chief Customer Officer at Alteryx. “Continuous learning isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential in today’s fast-moving AI and analytics landscape. The new Alteryx Academy is designed to make upskilling intuitive and engaging, helping everyone from beginners to experts gain the confidence and knowledge they need to succeed. By prioritizing continuous learning, we’re helping the Alteryx community build practical, in-demand analytics skills that drive real impact in their roles and across their organizations.”

What’s New in the Alteryx Academy

• One Connected Hub: Centralized access to all Alteryx learning content, credentials, and resources in a single destination.
• Updated Design: Faster navigation, intuitive layouts, and an improved interface designed for ease of use.
• Personalized Learning Pathways: Guided experiences tailored to individual goals, interests, and skill levels.
• New Credentials Program: A secure, modernized way to validate Alteryx and data analytics expertise.

Extended Learning Opportunities 

Alteryx Academy is also expanding access to deeper learning opportunities across its global community. In 2026, learners will gain access to new premium, hands-on courses designed to accelerate skill development and advance analytics expertise. Free foundational learning will remain available to all users, ensuring that every member can continue to build skills at their own pace. Select in-person learning opportunities will also be available at Alteryx Inspire, bringing hands-on training directly to the global analytics community.

Learn more about the newly relaunched Alteryx Academy, including what’s new today and what’s coming next.

ABOUT ALTERYX: Alteryx is a leading AI-ready data and analytics company that powers actionable insights to help organizations drive smarter, faster decisions with data. More than 8,000 customers around the world rely on Alteryx to automate analytics, improve revenue performance, manage costs, and mitigate risk across their businesses.

Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Dubai, UAE, 24 March 2026: Yango Tech, B2B technology solutions provider by Yango Group, launches a new business practice focused on developing and deploying autonomous industrial AI agents. These AI agents are designed to execute real operational tasks across customer service, analytics, compliance, and decision-making, serving industries such as fintech, medtech, e-commerce, logistics, smart cities, and the public sector. Yango Tech offers both ready-to-deploy solutions and a customizable platform for building AI agents tailored to the specific needs of each business. This new business direction addresses the rapidly growing demand across the Middle East for scalable AI systems that deliver measurable business impact, as the region accelerates toward a projected $320 billion AI economy by 2030.

AI Agents connect directly to enterprise applications and data sources, including CRM, HR and finance systems, allowing AI to act like digital employees with memory, execution capabilities and built-in security. For governments and enterprises building digital workforces and smart cities, Yango Tech deploys AI employees across customer support, sales, recruitment and debt recovery, delivering 95% first-contact resolution, faster hiring and up to $100K in monthly operational savings. Its Smart City stack enables digital twins, emergency navigation, mobility optimization and real-time urban analytics, helping municipalities accelerate decision-making, improve traffic flow, and reduce energy and operational costs through AI-powered city modelling and dispatch optimization.

In the medical world, Yango Tech reduces physician admin workloads through appointment transcription, smart search across electronic medical records, imaging analysis and AI and BI command centres. The solutions automate documentation, surface unified patient data in seconds, improve diagnostic accuracy and enable clinicians to treat more patients. In financial services, AI functions support front-, middle- and back-office transformation through AI-powered chatbots, smart search, credit scoring, anti-fraud analytics and workflow automation.

Commenting on the launch, Vladimir Razuvaev, Chief Executive at Yango Tech, said: “Enterprises today are under pressure to turn AI into practical outcomes. Our AI Agents were built to help organizations deploy autonomous digital employees that integrate securely into existing systems and deliver measurable productivity gains. With around 84% of GCC organisations adopting AI, the opportunity now lies in execution. Our vision is to help healthcare providers, banks, private firms and cities scale AI responsibly while strengthening performance, transparency and service quality.”

The launch reinforces Yango Tech’s alignment with the UAE’s national innovation agenda and broader regional ambitions for AI-led economic growth, smart infrastructure and digital government. By enabling sovereign deployments, local data control and enterprise-grade security, the platform supports the UAE’s vision for future-ready public services and knowledge-driven economies while helping organizations move faster from strategy to implementation.

To learn more about Yango Tech’s industrial AI Agents and enterprise solutions, visit https://yango-tech.com/.

-END-

About Yango Tech

Yango Tech, a part of the global technology company Yango Group, develops advanced B2B technology solutions tailored to the evolving needs of modern businesses. Combining proprietary R&D with deep technological expertise, the company delivers transformative solutions for commerce, enterprise, and the public sector. While Yango Group enhances everyday life through technology, Yango Tech helps organizations transform their operations with scalable, proven AI solutions that enable them to compete and grow in an increasingly digital world.

March 24, 2026 – Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, today announced the research preview of Project SnowWork, a new autonomous enterprise AI platform designed to help business users massively accelerate workflows. Acting as a proactive AI partner, Project SnowWork empowers individuals and teams across the business to simply ask for what they need and have Project SnowWork securely complete multi-step tasks based on conversational prompts.

Whether it’s building a board-ready forecast slide deck, creating a spreadsheet that identifies churn risks, or uncovering supply chain bottlenecks, Project SnowWork autonomously executes simple or complex workflows end-to-end to drive action.

“We are entering the era of the agentic enterprise, ushering in a fundamentally new way to work. This shift is about much more than technology, it’s about unlocking new levels of productivity and efficiency by embedding intelligence directly into the operating fabric of the enterprise,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, Chief Executive Officer, Snowflake. “Project SnowWork looks to put secure, data-grounded AI agents on every surface, so business leaders and operators can move from question to action instantly. By elevating AI from experimentation to enterprise-grade autonomous execution, Project SnowWork serves as the secure foundation for how modern enterprises will get work done in the AI era.”

The rise of the agentic enterprise is not just about answering questions with AI, rather, it’s a shift to using AI to drive decisions and action. This future will require enterprises to connect intelligence, applications, and enterprise data and context into a trusted foundation that can continuously coordinate action at scale.

Project SnowWork makes this possible by bringing Snowflake’s enterprise data platform and AI capabilities directly to business users through a simple, outcome-driven desktop experience. More than a productivity agent, Project SnowWork can:

• Plan and autonomously execute simple or complex multi-step workflows across governed Snowflake data to deliver finished outputs — from reprioritizing sales territories to executive-ready presentations.
• Generate analysis with recommended actions, turning insights into prioritized next steps tailored to each business role.
• Securely orchestrate data, AI, and enterprise systems to complete tasks end-to-end, reducing backlogs and accelerating decisions.

Unlike general-purpose AI agents, Project SnowWork is built on a single enterprise-wide source of truth with governed metrics, shared business definitions, cross-cloud interoperability, and built-in security and auditability.

Key capabilities Project SnowWork delivers:

• Pre-Built, Persona-Specific Skills: Provides pre-configured, role-aware AI “profiles” for finance, sales, marketing, operations, and more that understand common business workflows, terminology, and KPIs, accelerating time-to-value.
• Multi-Step Task Completion: Enables the AI platform to autonomously plan and complete complex workflows — querying data, applying analysis, synthesizing insights, generating structured deliverables, and preparing next steps within a single interaction — compressing reporting cycles and eliminating manual coordination across systems.
• Built-In Security and Access Controls: Automatically enforces Snowflake’s role-based access controls (RBAC), masking policies, audit logging, and data governance rules — ensuring AI actions operate within the same trusted perimeter as enterprise data.

“Enterprises have invested heavily in data platforms and AI, yet the last mile of translating governed data into everyday business outcomes remains largely manual,” said Sanjeev Mohan, Principal at SanjMo. “Project SnowWork represents a meaningful shift from AI as an analytical tool to AI as an execution layer embedded directly into enterprise workflows. By grounding autonomous task execution in trusted, governed Snowflake data, shared business definitions, and cross-cloud and cross-domain interoperability, the company is extending its platform from a system of insight to a system of action, which is where measurable business value is ultimately realized.”

AI Built for Action, Not Just Insights

Organizations have invested heavily in modern data platforms and AI, yet most business users still rely on analysts, static dashboards, and siloed systems to answer basic questions. Today’s AI tools often require technical expertise and lack the enterprise data foundation needed to deliver trusted, actionable outcomes.

The result is a widening gap between AI’s potential and its real business impact. Project SnowWork closes that gap by securely embedding AI into the flow of work, enabling every employee to operate with the speed, precision, and insight once reserved for data specialists.

It allows business users to move from intent to actions and outcomes without filing tickets with data teams or searching for static dashboards. For example, Sales Operations teams can now automate repetitive reporting, work across multiple data sources without coding, and generate presentation-ready deliverables in minutes instead of days.

Advancing Snowflake’s Enterprise AI Architecture

Snowflake’s portfolio of AI products enables every employee to use AI on trusted, governed data so organizations can embrace the agentic enterprise where intelligence drives secure, data-driven action across the business.

For business users, Snowflake Intelligence is the enterprise intelligence agent built to turn all the knowledge within an organization into trusted business insights. It enables every employee to ask complex questions in natural language and move beyond the “what” to uncover the critical “why.” Grounded in governed enterprise data and shared business context, it delivers transparent, verifiable answers inside Snowflake’s secure perimeter. Project SnowWork extends this idea by helping teams act on those insights and execute multi-step workflows directly on top of trusted Snowflake data.

For builders who want to turn complex data engineering, analytics, machine learning, and agent-building tasks into simple, informed interactions, Cortex Code is a data-native AI coding agent that automates and accelerates end-to-end enterprise development. It generates production-ready code, orchestrates workflows, and enforces best practices, enabling teams to move from prototype to deployment with speed and confidence.

About Snowflake

Snowflake is the platform for the AI era, making it easy for enterprises to innovate faster and get more value from data. More than 13,300 customers around the globe, including hundreds of the world’s largest companies, use Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to build, use and share data, applications and AI. With Snowflake, data and AI are transformative for everyone. Learn more at snowflake.com (NYSE: SNOW).

Situated at the crossroads of global commerce, the GCC is tied to one of the world’s most important trade corridors, the Red Sea, which carries 12% of global trade. Regional economies are diversifying, strengthening their role in international supply chains and investing in advanced manufacturing and distribution zones. In turn, warehouse operators face mounting pressure to increase speed, resilience, and efficiency. Against these structural shifts, Swisslog highlights five warehouse challenges that automation is positioned to solve across MENA by 2026.

1. Labour shortages and rising costs

Warehouse processes such as picking and palletising can account for up to 60% of operational costs, with labour representing more than half of total warehouse expenditure. In high-demand logistics corridors, large turnover in manual roles and increasing wage expectations are intensifying pressure on operators to do more with fewer people.

High-density robotic systems, such as AutoStore, can perform the work of four or five manual pickers with 99% accuracy. Across the region, similar goods-to-person and mobile robotic solutions are reducing dependency on seasonal labour and lowering error rates that lead to costly returns. By redesigning workflows around automation, operators are shifting talent into higher-value supervisory and technical roles while protecting margins from escalating labour costs.

2. E-commerce growth and peak volatility

E-commerce in MENA continues to expand rapidly, with the regional market projected to reach AED183.6 billion by 2028. Major peak events such as White Friday, 11.11, and Eid create demand spikes that manual operations cannot absorb through hiring alone. Robotics and automated storage and retrieval systems are expected to manage up to half of all orders in leading grocery and e-commerce environments, with fulfilment times projected to reduce from several hours to 30 minutes by 2028.

Integrated omnichannel facilities allow retailers to combine store replenishment and direct-to-consumer fulfilment within a single inventory pool. Shuttle systems and automated sortation enable dynamic allocation of stock between channels, while advanced warehouse control platforms synchronise robotics, manual workstations, and packing lines in real time. This allows operators to scale throughput during peaks without duplicating infrastructure.

3. Space constraints and rising industrial rents

Warehouse space near ports, airports, and major urban centres like Dubai and Riyadh is scarce and expensive. Here, optimising cubic capacity rather than expanding square metres is a competitive advantage. Automated storage and retrieval systems can maximise floor space utilisation by up to 85%, while compact grid-based and shuttle technologies allow operators to store up to four times more inventory than conventional racking within the same footprint. Increased density also reduces travel distances for both people and robots, boosting throughput and improving accuracy.

Extending the life of an existing facility through vertical and high-density storage offers a more viable financial path than relocation or greenfield construction.

4. Food security and cold chain resilience

Governments are investing in local production and advanced logistics to reduce dependency on imports and minimise food loss, which globally approaches 30% before reaching consumers.

Automation strengthens this resilience through precision handling, traceable storage, and reduced waste. In food and grocery environments, automated systems sustain pick accuracy above 99% while multiplying output, enabling retailers to meet growing online grocery demand without compromising freshness. Multi-temperature automation solutions now allow fresh, frozen, and ambient products to be stored within coordinated systems, eliminating the need for separate cold rooms and streamlining replenishment. As temperature-controlled logistics expands to pharmaceuticals and biotech, these technologies are becoming foundational to quality assurance across the cold chain.

5. Energy efficiency and sustainability mandates

National strategies such as the UAE Net Zero 2050 agenda and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 are reshaping performance expectations for industrial facilities. The UAE–Ecuador CEPA promises $3 billion in renewable energy and clean technology investments, while Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has committed approximately $8.3 billion to develop 15,000 MW of renewable energy projects. These developments are prompting warehouse operators to integrate cleaner power sources into logistics infrastructure.

Automation technologies such as high-bay stacker cranes equipped with regenerative braking modules reduce energy consumption compared to conventional equipment, with many robotics drawing less than 0.1 kW per hour. Automation also enables more compact warehouse designs that limit the need for energy-intensive lighting, heating, and cooling. When paired with on-site renewable generation such as solar power, facilities can significantly lower carbon intensity while improving operational performance.

Dubai UAE — March 12, 2026– Alteryx, Inc., a leading AI-ready data and analytics company, has announced its next phase of growth, surpassing $1 billion in ARR and powering more than 380 million automated workflows annually. As enterprises shift from AI experimentation to full-scale execution, demand for trusted automation and AI-ready data has never been higher. With Alteryx One, organizations are operationalizing AI responsibly and accelerating enterprise-scale decision-making.

Enterprises continue to invest heavily in AI, with 89% planning to maintain or increase spending in 2026, as generative and agentic AI technologies promise a transformative impact. Yet trust remains a critical barrier: 28% of organizations report limited or no confidence in the accuracy and quality of their data. In the UAE alone, 94% of data leaders say they lack complete visibility into AI decision-making processes. Reliable data and repeatable workflows have become the foundation for operationalizing AI successfully.

To address these challenges, Alteryx One brings together this strategy — a single platform trusted by thousands of customers that connects data, business context, and AI for insights.

Scaling AI and Automation with Alteryx One

McKinsey & Company puts AI adoption at ~84% across surveyed orgs in the Middle East region. Against this backdrop, data remains the defining factor. As per Alteryx research, nearly half (49%) of leaders cite high-quality, accessible, and well-governed data as the top requirement for AI to reach its full potential. To meet this, Alteryx One provides a trusted logic layer, a governed, repeatable workflow that captures business logic, preserves lineage, and produces AI-ready outputs.

Adoption of Alteryx One is accelerating, with thousands of customers upgrading to the new, simplified edition pricing model, making it easier to access advanced AI and automation capabilities. Built-in enterprise security and governance provide the controls organizations need to scale. By seamlessly connecting to enterprise data sources, AI models, and business applications, Alteryx One delivers trusted, governed data wherever it’s needed.

Andy MacMillan, CEO of Alteryx, said: “When automation becomes agentic, inconsistency is no longer just inefficient. It becomes an enterprise risk. AI requires a governed and repeatable logic layer. Without that foundation, organizations don’t just move faster — they scale risk faster than productivity. Alteryx is purpose-built for this next phase, giving enterprises the control, transparency, and confidence to operationalize AI, and giving lines of business the flexibility they need to adapt and change.”

In 2025, Alteryx also celebrated 10 years of its global Community, which now includes more than 750,000 members worldwide. Community members have shared thousands of peer-driven solutions, workflows, and best practices, helping organizations accelerate onboarding, scale analytics initiatives faster, and maximize the value of Alteryx One. Automation at Enterprise Scale

The need for reliable, scalable automation has never been more evident. In 2025, Alteryx customers executed more than 380 million automated workflows, up from more than 260 million in 2023, highlighting how organizations are moving beyond experimentation to governed, enterprise-wide automation that operationalizes analytics.

Alteryx enables organizations to extend automation into new generative AI use cases while maintaining explainable, auditable outputs aligned with enterprise compliance standards. Users can interact with data using natural language, accelerate model development, and embed AI-driven insights directly into trusted workflows — helping organizations scale innovation without sacrificing control.

Business Performance 

In 2025, the company surpassed $1 billion in ARR, signaling strong enterprise adoption and long-term customer commitment. Alteryx was also recognized in G2’s 2026 Best Software Awards for Best Analytics Software Products.

In parallel, Alteryx has expanded its cloud data platform ecosystem, including a deepened partnership with Google Cloud that enables customers to work directly with cloud-scale data and accelerate analytics and AI initiatives in modern cloud environments.

The company also introduced a refreshed brand identity reflecting its evolution into a unified platform for AI-powered analytics and enterprise-scale automation. With Alteryx One at the center, the company is redefining how enterprises scale AI and automation responsibly, providing the trusted foundation needed to drive intelligent outcomes.

About Alteryx  

Alteryx is a leading AI-ready data and analytics company that powers actionable insights to help organizations drive smarter, faster decisions with data. More than 8,000 customers around the world rely on Alteryx to automate analytics, improve revenue performance, manage costs, and mitigate risk across their businesses.

Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. 

In times of uncertainty, we instinctively seek stability, in our relationships, routines, and the communities around us. When the wider world feels unpredictable, human connection becomes more than a comfort; it becomes a lifeline. Yet in fast-moving cities and digital-first lifestyles, many of us maintain large networks while lacking the deeper bonds that truly sustain us.

Research shows that strong social ties build resilience, lower stress, and improve overall health. As conversations around wellbeing become more open, there is growing recognition that the quality of our relationships matters just as much as professional achievement, and that in moments of collective unease, those ties matter even more.

Recognising the importance of real-world connection, UAE-based platform MAXION suggests five ways that building community can help protect wellbeing.

1. Prioritise depth over volume

It is easy to confuse social activity with genuine connection. Many of us interact with dozens of contacts online every day yet still experience loneliness. What safeguards wellbeing is not the size of a network, but the substance of the relationships within it. Harvard’s long-running Study of Adult Development, which has tracked participants for more than 80 years, found that warm, supportive bonds are among the most significant predictors of long-term happiness. Honest dialogue, shared values, and reliable encouragement foster belonging that broad but shallow circles rarely provide.

2. Say yes to new experiences, they could become lasting bonds

Some of the most important relationships begin simply with a chat at an event, or an introduction through a friend. What matters is allowing those early interactions to develop over time. To encourage more of us to take that step, particularly during a period when isolation can quietly take hold, MAXION is offering complimentary premium memberships to both existing and new members of its curated community until 17 March. The initiative reflects a broader belief: that lasting bonds are not built through endless scrolling, but through shared experiences and real conversation.

3. Collective experiences ease stress and build grounding

Small, purposeful activities, meeting for coffee, attending a gathering, or simply spending unhurried time together, bring stability during unsettled periods. Face-to-face interaction engages cues that screens cannot replicate, helping us feel heard and understood. Research has shown that time spent with friends or partners can significantly reduce perceived anxiety. These moments help individuals process what they are feeling and gain perspective, which becomes especially valuable when the ground beneath feels less certain.

4. Regular contact prevents loneliness from escalating

Loneliness has become a growing global concern. According to the World Health Organization, around one in six worldwide experience it, and it is linked to higher risks of depression, anxiety, elevated stress, and poorer physical health. Proactive engagement acts as an early buffer. When we make room for honest exchange and dependable contact, feelings of isolation are far less likely to take root. Even a small circle of trusted individuals can offer the reassurance needed to weather difficult stretches. Those ties also contribute to longer lives. Research across blue zones highlights that close community bonds and frequent interaction are key longevity factors, with one study noting that strong personal connections can reduce the risk of early death by up to 50%.

5. Routine builds steadiness

Community is strengthened through consistency. Whether it is weekly gatherings, group activities, or regular check-ins, showing up reliably anchors us during turbulent periods. Psychologists often point to the value of predictable social structures in maintaining wellbeing. Knowing that certain people and communities remain constant provides quiet comfort during times of change, a reminder that not everything is shifting at once.

In fast-paced cities like Dubai, carving out room for real connection is not always easy. But it has rarely been more important. By nurturing the bonds around us with care and intention, we can build the kind of networks that carry us through uncertainty and well beyond it.

Across the GCC, national growth strategies, with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the UAE’s National AI Strategy 2031, and Qatar’s national roadmap, place AI at the centre of economic diversification. McKinsey estimates AI adoption at roughly 84% across GCC organisations, with a potential $320 billion economic impact for the Middle East by 2030. As deployment accelerates, regulatory compliance is a defining factor separating ambition from sustainable scale. Shaffra, an AI research and applications company building autonomous AI teams for enterprises and governments, sees six clear shifts reshaping how companies operate.

1. Regulation is accelerating adoption in high-stakes sectors

Government entities, financial services, telecom, aviation, and large semi-government organisations are moving fastest. These sectors operate at scale, face strict efficiency mandates, and function under constant regulatory oversight. Healthcare and energy are advancing more cautiously due to safety and data sensitivity. In many cases, the more regulated the industry, the faster AI deployment progresses. However, rapid scaling also exposes governance weaknesses, particularly where documentation, ownership, and oversight mechanisms are underdeveloped.

2. Compliance is prerequisite for scale

Over the past year, 88% of Middle East CEOs have reported generative AI uptake. Today, organisations increasingly require audit trails, explainability, clear data lineage and residency controls, defined performance thresholds, and enforceable human oversight mechanisms. With one in four Middle East consumers citing privacy as a primary concern, compliance is being treated as a post-deployment validation exercise; it is a structural requirement for scaling AI responsibly.

3. Sovereign AI and data residency are shaping architecture

AI governance in the GCC is being influenced less by standalone AI laws and more by data protection and cybersecurity frameworks. The UAE’s federal data protection law, Saudi Arabia’s PDPL under SDAIA, and Oman’s PDPL reinforce lawful processing and cross-border controls. In highly regulated sectors such as banking, healthcare, energy, and telecommunications, data residency and local control over models are strategic imperatives. Sovereign AI is evolving from a policy ambition into an operational requirement affecting infrastructure, vendor selection, and system design.

4. Human accountability is being reasserted

When organisations deploy AI without defining who owns the decision, when human escalation is required, and what the system is permitted or restricted from doing, they create either over-reliance or under-utilisation. Without clearly defined ownership and documented review controls, accountability weakens and regulatory exposure increases.

For instance, DIFC reinforces responsible AI use in personal data processing. High-impact decisions involving legal standing, fraud, employment, healthcare guidance, or public sector determinations that affect citizens need to involve human oversight, while AI handles speed, consistency, and automation of repetitive tasks. High-impact decisions should involve accountable human oversight.

5. Governance maturity slows deployment activity

Many organisations are AI-active but still developing governance maturity. Common governance gaps are structural rather than technical. Multiple pilots often run in parallel, tool adoption is fragmented, and accountability is split across IT, legal, risk, and business functions. Growing enterprises often lack a central AI governance owner, a comprehensive use-case inventory, consistent vendor and model risk assessment, and formal escalation protocols. Policies may exist at the board level, yet it is not consistently embedded into day-to-day operations. Addressing this gap requires governance to be built into workflows from the outset.

6. Continuous auditing is discipline

Studies indicate that a majority of ML models degrade over time, through model drift, hidden bias, or misuse vulnerabilities. Initial audits frequently reveal undocumented use cases, weak access segmentation, insufficient logging, and unclear review protocols. Effective governance requires compliance with international and local data residency rules, structured risk tiering, data lineage validation, access controls, bias testing, performance benchmarking, and defined incident response procedures. High-impact systems warrant quarterly reviews supported by continuous monitoring, while lower-risk applications still require periodic reassessment. Governance is increasingly measured through evidence rather than policy statements. Boards are asking for dashboards, logs, and audit artefacts — not policy PDFs.

Governance is being considered as part of AI infrastructure. Compliance frameworks are evolving into operational architecture embedded within systems, workflows, and accountability models. The organisations that will lead in the GCC are those that design governance at the same time they design capability, ensuring AI scales with discipline rather than risk.

Dubai, UAE, 11^th March 2026: Access Consult, a Dubai-based architectural and engineering consultancy, is marking a new phase of growth after delivering more than 800 projects across the UAE over the past 27 years. The firm has evolved into a full-service design and engineering consultancy supporting developers and public sector clients with end-to-end delivery, from concept design and authority approvals through to construction supervision and handover.

Access Consult provides fully integrated architectural, structural, MEP, interior design, quantity surveying, project management, and supervision services, all delivered through in-house teams. This one-stop model allows the company to manage projects from A to Z while maintaining direct control over quality, timelines, and regulatory compliance. With a strong footprint across the UAE and a focus on Dubai,  Access Consult has signed 10 new projects, completed three major developments, and grown its team by approximately 30 to 35% in the past year alone. This momentum supports the nation’s We the UAE 2031 vision for future-ready development, as 400,000+ units are under construction or planned for the next four years in Dubai alone.

The company’s portfolio features developers across residential, commercial, retail, healthcare, and mixed-use projects, serving private and public sectors. The firm works closely with government stakeholders, including Dubai Municipality and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority. Landmark developments across Dubai include the Edition Hotel Dubai, DSO Radison Blu Hotel, ALTA Tower, Guzel Towers, the Famous Marina Mosque and many more. Access Consult also supports major organisations such as National Bonds and regional developers across residential and commercial real estate, while also working on selected international projects across the EMEA region.

Arch. Mohamed Salah Seguen, CEO at Access Consult member of Excellence Consortium, said: “At Access Consult, we are very deliberate about how we grow. As a mid-sized consultancy, every project and every client relationship matters. Our focus is to deliver quality design, practical engineering, and dependable supervision from the first concept through to handover. Clients choose Access Consult for our fully in-house delivery, strong regulatory expertise, and speed without compromising standards. Looking ahead, our vision is to strengthen our position as a trusted UAE consultancy while expanding our capabilities to support more complex, design-led developments across the region.”

A core differentiator for Access Consult is its fully digital approach to design coordination and project delivery. By managing architectural and engineering workflows through integrated digital systems and overlapping design phases, the company typically reduces design and approval timelines by 30 to 50%. During construction, its structured supervision processes and on-site engineering teams help shorten delivery schedules by a further 20 to 30%, depending on project scope and contractor performance. This approach is reinforced by Access Consult’s position within a wider group of specialist companies, giving clients access to additional expertise across project management, façade engineering, and technical consultancy when required.

Building on nearly three decades of operation in the UAE, Access Consult continues to position itself as a trusted partner for developers seeking streamlined project delivery, regulatory expertise, and integrated design services under one roof. Looking ahead, Access Consult is prioritising continued investment in digital delivery processes while strengthening its presence across high-growth residential and commercial developments. Longer term, the company will broaden its business model to include project development and management services, building on its technical foundation and market experience.

With more than 800 projects completed and a growing multidisciplinary team, the firm remains focused on shaping practical, high-quality built environments that support the region’s evolving development landscape.

For more information, visit www.access-ec.com.

-END-

About Access Consult

Access Consult is a Dubai-based architectural and engineering consultancy founded in 1998. The firm delivers integrated design, engineering, quantity surveying, project management, and supervision services across residential, commercial, retail, healthcare, and mixed-use developments. With over 27 years of experience and more than 800 projects delivered, Access Consult supports clients from concept through completion, combining in-house multidisciplinary expertise with a strong understanding of UAE regulatory frameworks to drive efficient, high-quality project outcomes.

Dubai, UAE – February 17, 2026: Yango Group, the UAE-based global tech company digitalising urban services, today announced that its advanced AI-powered routing technologies saved urban commuters more than 5 million hours in 2025 across 20+ cities of its presence — the equivalent of 600 years of human time returned to communities.

The findings, based on an analysis of millions of Yango Ride trips in 2025, prove that intelligent routing delivers tangible quality-of-life improvements at scale, establishing AI-driven mobility as critical infrastructure for modern cities. Yango’s routing system leverages a sophisticated combination of machine learning models, real-time traffic data, and historical analysis to optimize every journey, processing multiple data streams simultaneously to calculate the most efficient route in milliseconds.

“Five million hours saved isn’t a tech metric — it’s proof that AI can solve real urban problems at scale,” said Adeniyi Adebayo, Chief Business Officer of Yango Group. “We’re demonstrating that the next generation of city infrastructure won’t be built with concrete and steel alone, but with data, algorithms, and intelligence embedded into everyday services.”

The research compared AI-optimized routes with static shortest-path navigation that does not account for real-time traffic conditions. The findings revealed measurable time savings within the UAE’s urban environments. In Dubai, AI-powered routing delivered an average time saving of 2.24% per trip, translating into a total annual recovery of 17,373 hours. In Abu Dhabi, users saved an average of 1.8% per trip, equivalent to 17,384 hours returned over the course of a year.

Beyond the UAE, the research highlights how intelligent routing is generating cumulative time savings across global urban centres, regardless of geography or mobility dynamics. In Lima, for example, users reclaimed over 1.1 million hours annually — the largest absolute saving among studied cities. Kinshasa residents saved an average of 6.48% per trip, while Guatemala City commuters experienced the highest efficiency gains at 6.99%. In Abidjan, the most active riders gained more than 2 hours per year individually. The cumulative effect represents 5 million hours returned to urban economies and communities in a single year.

The technology processes information about road characteristics, traffic light patterns, turn complexity, and predictive congestion modeling. The system’s self-learning architecture continuously improves accuracy by comparing predicted versus actual travel times, creating an evolving feedback loop that adapts to each city’s unique patterns.

Beyond time savings, intelligent routing contributes to broader urban sustainability goals. By minimizing idle time and optimizing traffic distribution, Yango’s AI technology helps improve fuel efficiency, lower emissions, and decrease localized congestion — core pillars of smart city development.

As cities worldwide grapple with growing populations and increasing motorization, Yango’s research underscores technology’s potential to address core infrastructure challenges while improving daily experiences for millions.