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Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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#InTheNews: HH Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, UAE Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, inaugurated the Emirate’s first business consultancy in China.
Located in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province and one of China’s leading economic and industrial centers, the consultancy will serve as a leading platform dedicated to strengthening Ras Al Khaimah’s engagement with Chinese businesses, facilitating new partnerships and expanding cooperation across key sectors.
Addressing attendees, HH Sheikh Saud said: “Our history and our experience have taught us that partners look beyond opportunity alone. They seek stability, transparency, governance and commitment. This is the environment we have built in Ras Al Khaimah.”
“Today, we take a meaningful step forward in our partnership, inaugurating Ras Al Khaimah’s first business consultancy here in Guangzhou. By establishing this consultancy, we create a lasting home along our shared path. We connect our people, our cultures and our industries. In doing so, we are ensuring that our collaboration is no longer periodic, but continuous, and no longer transactional, but truly transformative,” he added.
According to the @Heidrick & Struggles CEO & Board Monitor Report, 49% of Middle East leaders identify cybersecurity risk as a top challenge for 2026, the highest share globally and well above the worldwide average of 31%.
Meanwhile, nearly half of organizations in the region are concerned about hack-and-leak operations, compared with a global average of 38%, according to Security Middle East Magazine.
Philippe Vallée, Executive Vice President of Cybersecurity and Digital Identity at @thalesgroup, says the Middle East is experiencing strong business growth, alongside a push to close gaps in cybersecurity readiness.
“Cybersecurity is becoming much more central to how companies think about their digital development, because the more connected and digital an organization becomes, the more important it is to build security and resilience into that transformation from the beginning.”
Vallée also emphasizes information-sharing between organizations and national cybersecurity agencies as a way to improve preparedness. Sharing details about breaches, attack methods, and vulnerabilities can help other organizations identify emerging threats and strengthen their defenses.
“Cybersecurity is a permanent race between the thickness of the wall and the power of the bullet. It has been the same story for the past 100 years, okay? Still the same. Now AI is just accelerating the pace; the rhythm of the race.”
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
The innovations shaping an industry today can define what comes next. Fast Company Middle East’s Most Innovative Companies 2026 recognizes organizations turning meaningful innovation into measurable impact.
Previous honorees include Binance, GMG, PepsiCo, Masdar City, and Chalhoub Group, each contributing to the region’s evolving business landscape.
If your company has introduced an innovation that has made a meaningful difference over the past year, tomorrow, October 23, is the final day to put its story forward.
Apply here: event.fastcompanyme.com/appl…
As populations age and chronic diseases become more prevalent, healthcare systems are beginning to rethink a model built largely around treating illness rather than preventing it.
Through investments in genomics, AI, specialized clinics and regulatory frameworks, Abu Dhabi is laying the foundations for a healthcare system capable of identifying disease risks long before symptoms appear. But making that a reality requires more than tech. It demands a fundamental shift in how medicine is practiced, how hospitals operate and how patients engage with their own health.
“We want to know which treatment is most appropriate for the individual patient in front of us,” said Dr. Mohammad Fityan, Group Chief Officer at @BurjeelHoldings. “AI can bring these enormous datasets together and can help generate more useful clinical predictions, and potentially avoid the loss of valuable time on an ineffective treatment.”
“It’s harder to recruit healthy people, young healthy people,” says Paul Downey, general manager of @M42Health’s Abu Dhabi Biobank. That gap matters in the pursuit of preventive medicine, where studying healthy populations could offer insights into the origins of illness and the factors that shape long-term health.
“Scaling AI still remains very fragmented. It is the root of a lot of the problems,” said Dr. Dr. Mujtaba Ali-Khan, Chief Executive Officer of @BurjeelMediCity and Group Chief Clinical Innovation Officer at Burjeel Holdings Hospitals. “You can have the right systems in place to integrate the technology, but it will die without correct utilization.”
Dr Rory Melville, medical director of the Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi, says, “This is about changing the foundations of healthcare to make prevention a priority. The ambition is being driven by the government, but the approach involves everyone across the healthcare system.”
The emirate is investing billions in the future of medicine. The real test is whether it can turn that investment into more years of good health.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/impact/abu…
#InTheNews: Robert Downey Jr. has joined @specs as the honorary Chief Customer Experience Officer.
“Trying is believing. Having tested practically every wearable tech that’s come to market in the last 20 years, and been largely unimpressed, I was absolutely sold on SPECS within 40 seconds,” said Downey Jr. “The applications are endless. Families can share experiences instead of hunching over devices, skills can be honed, big business can streamline development. In short, it delivers on the promise of AR glasses made by a certain techno optimist superhero I portrayed. Life imitates art-imitates life! I’ve never experienced the confident, warm and creatively inviting atmosphere that Evan has cultivated at SPECS anywhere else in the tech sector. Wait’ll you see what we create for you to enjoy.”
Downey Jr. will work alongside the SPECS team to explore how augmented reality can improve the way people live and work, from everyday experiences in entertainment and education to specialized uses across medicine, engineering, and manufacturing.
"We're incredibly excited to welcome Robert Downey Jr. to SPECS to help shape the future of augmented reality," said Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc. "Robert has been imagining what this technology could become for nearly twenty years, and it's an honor to work with him to bring that vision to life.”
Middle Eastern ultra-high-net-worth families are prioritizing governance and succession planning as they prepare for business transitions, although many remain unprepared for a potential sale or transfer, according to the 2026 Family Barometer by Julius Baer and @EYnews.
The report, the first collaboration between the two firms, surveyed more than 700 finance professionals. It found that more than four in five ultra-high-net-worth families globally own at least 50% of an operating company, yet only 2.3% are fully prepared for a sale or transfer, while 12% are largely prepared.
“What we consistently see is that the families who navigate these transitions with confidence are those who have put governance in place early, agreeing how decisions will be made and involving successors well before any handover takes place,” said Jean Pierre Dib, Co-Head Middle East & Africa at @juliusbaer.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/news/famil…
The Retail World Awards – Middle East Edition, powered by Fast Company Middle East, celebrate the brands, leaders, and innovators making an impact across the retail industry.
Nominations close on 30 October 2026. Put your achievements in the spotlight.
Nominate now: awards.retailworldforum.com/…
#RetailWorldAwards #RetailExcellence #Retail
As AI reduces the time and cost of routine execution, parts of the work a B2B intelligence provider does become easier for others to reproduce. That puts pressure on providers to demonstrate what their expertise contributes beyond the output.
“Clients want a clearer connection between the work they buy and the commercial result,” says XDBS founder Kartik Anand.
Meeting that demand means following the work past delivery. Accurate information is a starting point. Its usefulness depends on whether it helps a customer recognize an opportunity and decide how to act.
When a campaign underperforms, the team needs to investigate the failure and use what it discovers. Producing more activity without understanding the problem simply repeats the expense.
“I’d measure development through the responsibility someone can handle: whether they can identify a problem, explain their recommendation, and recognize when they need help,” @KTAnand says.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
Salma Mohamed,18, a university marketing student, says memes rarely translate seamlessly across cultures. Drawing on her experience with brands in Egypt, she explains: “Local brands are either using Egyptian-based memes, which are hard to translate into other neighboring countries. Some use western memes that have spread and risk not resonating with Arab audiences altogether.”
Vlada Lomova, CEO of PRHub.ae, says, “Humor in Egypt, the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa runs on different dialects, references and comedic traditions, so a joke that lands in Cairo can fall flat in Riyadh. Sensitivities around religion, family and politics also narrow the margin for error.”
“When a creator or a friend shares a meme, it signals ‘this person gets it.’ When a brand posts one, it signals ‘this brand is trying to get me.’ Gen Z doesn’t punish brands for being funny,” says Andrew Baturin, chief marketing officer of @tumodoglobal.
He explains that Gen Z punishes brands for borrowing culture without adding anything. Younger audiences can also spot committee-made content, which often feels too polished and arrives too late.
Memes cannot confer cultural fluency. They can only reveal whether a brand already has it. The best work adds a real point of view to a conversation; the rest is simply an ad waiting for the joke to end.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/impact/why…
Research shows that 41% of consumers want brands to participate in meme culture and social trends, while only 25% want brands to use popular youth slang and phrases. This gap suggests that audiences may welcome brands engaging with internet culture but are less receptive when those efforts feel forced.
The real challenge is joining in without looking like you’re trying too hard. When brands copy internet humor without really understanding it, their efforts can seem more like a marketing trick than a real attempt to connect.
The future of food may not look like a restaurant. It could mirror a small container, with robotic chef arms mixing ingredients and preparing your food in what seems like the blink of an eye. That is the bet behind an autonomous kitchen now operating in Abu Dhabi’s Marina Square.
Developed by robotics and food technology company Circus Group, the CA-1 system uses robotic arms, cameras, sensors, and an AI layer to prepare meals with minimal human intervention.
Circus currently operates across eight countries. The Abu Dhabi launch is the company’s first deployment outside Europe, bringing the technology to the UAE as part of a wider global rollout. And one of the dishes it makes is chicken biryani.
“We’re coming from a simple belief that everything in food production is perfectly made to be disrupted through robotics,” said Founder and CEO Nikolas Bullwinkel.
The ambition is bigger than automating a kitchen. Circus wants to change how food is produced, distributed, and accessed, with the long-term goal of making meals more affordable and available around the clock.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
Meta glasses are available in the UAE, and being secretly recorded is the primary fear; people worry about how smart glasses could affect cultural values such as modesty, family privacy, and social etiquette.
Meta claims that, to protect against this, every pair of glasses has an LED light that’s supposed to let people know the glasses are recording. But Al Qadreya Al Awadhi, Founder & CEO of Bumblebee, says relying on a tiny LED light to signal recording “simply doesn't cut it in real life as it is easily missed.” “It makes enforcing our natural, everyday social boundaries almost impossible in shared public spaces,” she adds.
“These glasses are completely against the cultural expectations of the Gulf. I can't find a single point where they fit. Islamic culture is built on discretion: haya, modesty, and sitr, protecting the privacy of others. A hidden camera on someone's face breaks all of it. Women are already exposed, in public and online. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is real and growing, and these glasses give abusers one more tool,” says Asma Derja, founder of the Ethical AI Alliance.
“Their discreet design makes recording difficult to detect, weakening traditional social cues that allow people to object. Even without malicious intent, their presence could create mistrust and discourage natural interactions in social settings,” says Dr. Fadi Alhaddadin, Assistant Professor at @HWUDubai.
“Many government workplaces have prohibited them, because confidential spaces cannot depend on trust alone. Expect similar bans in hospitals, schools, and places of worship, plus mandatory recording indicators and consent-by-design. Venues should post clear no-recording signage. Convenience should never be paid for with someone else's privacy,” says Feba Rachel, a Dubai-based Data Privacy Counsel.
Experts say laws should reflect how AI is changing the landscape. The question is the rules of engagement and stronger safeguards before they become commonplace.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
#InTheNews: @MercedesBenz and @nvidia announced that they will extend their strategic partnership to advance the next generation of automated driving systems.
The collaboration brings together Mercedes Benz’s automotive engineering and safety expertise and its MB.OS operating system with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI technologies.
“The expansion of our partnership marks a significant milestone and reflects the mutual trust we have built over the years. Together, we aim to bring further pioneering innovations to the road, offering our customers the best automated driving experience while upholding the high safety standards they expect from a Mercedes Benz,” said Joerg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes Benz Group AG and Chief Technology Officer, Development & Procurement.
“Accelerated computing is giving vehicles the intelligence to understand the world and reason through complex driving situations. Mercedes Benz brings the engineering excellence and commitment to safety this transformation demands. Together, we’re building on NVIDIA Hyperion to bring that intelligence and full-stack safety to the road and make autonomous driving an everyday reality,” said Ali Kani, Vice President of Automotive at NVIDIA.
Does more data mean people are taking better care of themselves? “No,” says Matteo Franceschetti (@m_franceschetti), CEO of @eightsleep. “The gap is not where most people think.”
People today are more self-aware and care about nutrition and training more than previous generations, Franceschetti argues. Sleep is where the discipline tends to break down. “Sleep is the part they still sacrifice first.”
Health, he says, rests on three pillars: sleep, nutrition, and fitness. Sleep comes first. Deep sleep is when the body physically repairs itself, while REM sleep helps the brain process what happened during the day.
“Sleep technology’s job is to make the bed do that work for you, one side at a time, based on what your body is actually doing. We are not reinventing the wheel; we simply help the body be more efficient at what nature already wants it to do.”
Eight Sleep has been studying sleep at scale, including through research into REM sleep, while collecting data from people in their own beds. Instead of a single controlled snapshot, the technology can capture patterns across thousands of nights and tens of thousands of people.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
