A new phase of enterprise AI is emerging, one that demands attention at the very top of the organisation.

For years, companies throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa have experimented with AI by testing chatbots, piloting analytics tools, and exploring generative AI features. Some pilots have delivered incremental gains, while many others have stalled.

This year, AI can no longer be treated as experimentation at the edge of the business. It must become embedded at the core.

Embedded AI, intelligence that lives directly inside enterprise processes, is now one of the most powerful levers available to boards seeking profitability, productivity and long-term competitiveness. Embedded AI represents a profound shift from AI features to AI-native operations.

From AI Features to AI-Native Operations

In the past, AI sat outside core systems, relegated to dashboards, standalone analytics tools, or isolated pilots. Today, it is moving directly into transaction flows: inside ERP, supply chain planning, finance, procurement, HR and customer experience systems. Embedded AI is context-aware, action-oriented, and governed. It understands the role, process and underlying business data of tasks, triggers and automate processes, and operates within enterprise-grade security, compliance and data frameworks.

In practical terms, this means a CFO can receive automated explanations for financial variances directly inside the closing process. A procurement leader can generate intelligent category recommendations within sourcing workflows, and a planner can optimise production schedules in real time without switching systems.

Business leaders are confronted with a range of unique regional pressures. Demographic shifts in Europe, combined with regulatory complexity, are placing demands for higher productivity on smaller workforces. In the Middle East, national AI strategies and diversification agendas require faster innovation cycles, while in Africa, youthful talent and digital acceleration present enormous opportunity, but only for companies that can scale efficiently and govern complexity.

The case for embedded AI as board-level issue

Boards are broadly asking the same questions: how do we protect margins; how do we increase throughput without increasing headcount? and how do we move from reactive decisions to predictive ones?

Embedded AI answers these questions not as a technology initiative, but as a shift in operating model. In 2023 and 2024, AI initiatives were built for experimentation. Last year and in the year ahead, the focus has shifted to unified AI platforms built on clean data foundations, and delivering measurable business outcomes.

There is one consistent lesson across our customer base: AI only works on a clean foundation.

Embedded AI requires harmonised processes, standardised ERP systems and high-quality data. That is why clean core strategies and unified AI infrastructures are so critical.

AI-native enterprises are consolidating scattered pilots into governed platforms.

Without a unified approach, organisations face duplicated models, inconsistent decisions and uncontrolled risk exposure. With it, ERP becomes a strategic AI engine.

The measurable impact of embedded AI is already evident. In HR, embedded intelligence in SuccessFactors is enabling skills-based workforce planning directly within manager workflows, aligning talent decisions to strategic priorities. Across finance functions globally, AI-assisted explanations and reconciliation processes are reducing manual effort by up to 70% while improving transparency and auditability.

Board-level priorities

For boards and executive teams across Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, three priorities stand out:

First, treat embedded AI as part of core architecture, not as an optional feature.

Second, invest in clean data and standardised processes to unlock higher-value automation.

Third, measure AI success in terms of profitability, cashflow protection, throughput and resilience, and not by pilot counts.

AI is now a core lever of competitive advantage, but only when paired with process redesign, data discipline and an empowered workforce. In 2026, the companies that lead will not be those experimenting at the margins. They will be those embedding intelligence into the heart of their business, turning ERP systems into engines of prediction, optimisation and growth.

Saudi Arabia has lowered the mandatory declaration threshold for cash and valuables carried through its land, sea and air ports from SAR60,000 ($16,000) to SAR40,000 ($10,600) under updated executive regulations issued as part of the kingdom’s Anti-Money Laundering Law.

The revised regulations, published in the official gazette Umm Al-Qura, require travelers entering or leaving the Kingdom to submit a written declaration if they are carrying cash, bearer negotiable instruments, gold bullion, precious metals, gemstones, jewelry or similar valuables worth SAR40,000 or more, or the equivalent amount in foreign currency, according to a Saudi Gazette report.

Read more-Gold slips as Iran risks support dollar, keep inflation fears in focus

The updated rules also grant the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) broader powers to inspect individuals, vehicles, shipping containers and postal parcels within customs zones, regardless of whether they are entering or leaving the Kingdom.

Expanded inspection and seizure powers

Under the revised regulations, ZATCA may seize undeclared or falsely declared cash, bearer negotiable instruments, gold bullion, precious metals, gemstones or jewelry for up to 72 hours if authorities suspect the assets are linked to a predicate offense or money laundering. The seizure can be carried out even if the value of the assets is below the mandatory declaration threshold.

Authorities are required to document every seizure, conduct preliminary inquiries into the origin of the assets and determine the reasons behind any failure to declare or any false declaration. Seized currency must be deposited into a designated trust account, while precious metals and gemstones will remain in customs custody.

The regulations also allow the Public Prosecution to extend the seizure period for up to 60 days, while any further extension must receive approval from the competent court.

Travelers carrying gold bullion, precious metals, gemstones or jewelry valued at SAR40,000 or more must present purchase invoices to customs officials to verify their value. If customs authorities determine the items are intended for commercial purposes, they will instead be subject to the Unified Customs Law and its executive regulations.

Stronger compliance requirements

The amendments also strengthen anti-money laundering compliance requirements for financial institutions by mandating group-wide information-sharing policies to support customer due diligence and risk management, while maintaining confidentiality and complying with personal data protection laws.

Financial institutions, along with designated non-financial businesses and professions, must identify the ultimate beneficial owner of legal entities, including any natural person who owns or controls 25 per cent or more of an entity or exercises effective control through other means.

The regulations further require Saudi financial institutions operating overseas to apply the Kingdom’s anti-money laundering requirements wherever possible and notify Saudi regulators if local laws prevent compliance.

Violations of the declaration requirements carry financial penalties ranging from 10 per cent to 25 per cent of the value of the seized assets for a first offense, provided there is no suspicion of money laundering or another underlying crime. Repeat violations may result in fines of up to 50 per cent of the value of the seized assets.

Where authorities suspect seized assets are linked to money laundering or another predicate offense, the case must be referred to the Public Prosecution for investigation, with the Saudi Financial Intelligence Unit notified immediately.

Thirty-three people have been rescued so far this weekend after Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes, the country’s interim president said, including several children, while tens of thousands remained unaccounted for with time for finding additional survivors running short.

The death toll from Wednesday’s twin earthquakes rose above 1,400 as of Saturday as foreign rescue teams poured into coastal La Guaira, the hardest-hit state.

Families and volunteers spent days pulling survivors and bodies from the rubble before the arrival of the more than 1,600 foreign rescue workers, often complaining of scant heavy equipment and a limited official presence, as hundreds of aftershocks deepened damage and kept residents on edge.

The government – headed by interim President Delcy Rodriguez since her predecessor was removed by the U.S. in a January raid – had thanked civilian volunteers ferrying aid to La Guaira, but then heavily tightened access to the road, saying traffic was preventing efficient movement of emergency vehicles and that only accredited people could use the roadway.

Although the government has given a figure of hundreds missing or trapped, just under 50,000 people were listed as unaccounted for on a website promoted by the country’s political opposition on Sunday.

The figure is a slight decline from Saturday, when 55,000 people were marked as missing.

The US Geological Survey estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible from the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, which would place them among Latin America’s deadliest of the last century.

The clock is ticking for rescuing people still living amid the rubble.

“There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive,” Sebastian Eugster, the leader of the Swiss rescue team, told Reuters on Saturday.

The 80-strong team had found multiple people alive in the rubble thanks to alerts from their eight search dogs, but had not been able to pull them out in time to save them, he added.

Saturday evening marked 72 hours since the quakes.

The Swiss team will jointly define with other teams and local authorities when rescue operations will end, Eugster said, but will remain on the ground to help with other aid work.

The US State Department hailed the rescue of an infant by U.S. rescue crews on Saturday, posting a video on X showing helmet-clad rescuers removing the blanket-wrapped and wailing child from the rubble.

A Colombian rescue team saved an 11-year-old boy, Moises, who had been trapped some 3 meters (10 feet) deep in rubble, after identifying his location with a scanner, Reuters TV reported.

He was removed on a stretcher with a broken arm, his eyes covered by cloth to protect them from the shock of daylight. His mother and sister were killed.

Mexican rescuers working at a collapsed building in the town of Caraballeda rescued another 11-year-old boy, Rodriguez posted on X late on Saturday, showing crews carrying a small figure on a stretcher out of the rubble.

“In these hours each life is hope for Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, as the government also shared a video of a young man being removed from ruins by rescuers.

The government also posted videos of Rodriguez meeting with international rescuers, where she gave the figure of people saved on Saturday.

The government has also said more than 3,000 people were injured and a similar figure was living in shelters.

In Caraballeda on Saturday, U.S. rescuers worked alongside remaining civilian volunteers, some of whom were searching for their own family members.

Rescuers had originally spray-painted the rubble with the name of the apartment building that used to stand there. By Saturday evening they had marked debris with coding indicating they believed no living person remained in the ruins.

Pope Leo on Sunday told worshippers gathered for the Angelus prayer in Rome that he wanted “to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes” and expressed gratitude to rescue workers.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X that the EU had mobilized 5 million euros ($5.9 million) in emergency assistance and that its Copernicus satellite system is helping map the damage and direct assistance to the areas most in need.

A senior U.S. official said on Saturday that a funding package worth hundreds of millions of dollars is expected to be announced within the next day or so, in addition to $150 million that the Trump administration had already committed.

The disaster could have political consequences for Rodriguez, who has portrayed herself as an agent of change even though she served as vice president under predecessor Nicolas Maduro.

Power throughout the region was gradually returning. Venezuela’s power grid, crippled by years of underinvestment and economic sanctions, regularly experiences problems, leading to daily, hours-long blackouts in some regions.

Read: Venezuela earthquake kills dozens as rescue efforts intensify

The Ajman Government Human Resources Department has announced reduced official working hours for government employees during the summer as part of its Sayfuna Mutawazin (Our Summer, Balanced) initiative.

The move is designed to foster a healthier work environment while strengthening the balance between employees’ professional and social lives. The initiative also aligns with the objectives and programmes of the Year of the Family.

Under a circular issued to all government entities in the emirate, official working hours from Monday to Thursday will be reduced to seven hours a day, running from 7:30am to 2:30pm. The revised schedule will be in effect from 29 June 2026 to 28 August 2026, a WAM report said.

Flexible schedules permitted

The circular states that Friday working hours will remain unchanged at four and a half hours, from 7:30am to 12:00pm, in line with existing Ajman Government regulations.

The Department said government entities may introduce flexible working arrangements, provided employees complete no fewer than the official working hours outlined in the circular.

It added that entities operating on a shift system will be responsible for determining the start and end times of shifts according to operational requirements and the nature of their services, while ensuring government services continue to be delivered efficiently and effectively.

The Ajman Government Human Resources Department also affirmed its readiness to provide technical and advisory support to government entities to help ensure the smooth implementation of the circular and its provisions.

The Central Government has announced a revision in passport application fees, with the new charges set to come into effect from July 1 under the Passports (Amendment) Rules, 2026. The revised fee structure increases the cost of fresh passport applications, passport reissues, Tatkal services and replacement passports for lost or damaged documents, an AIR news report said.

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the fee for a fresh 36-page ordinary passport or the reissue of a passport has been increased to INR2,500 from the existing INR1,500. Applicants opting for the Tatkal scheme for a 36-page passport will now have to pay INR5,000, up from the earlier INR3,500.

Read more-UAE passport powers ahead: Visa-free access to 187 destinations

For those applying for a 60-page ordinary passport or seeking its reissue, the revised fee has been fixed at INR3,500, compared with the previous INR2,000. Under the Tatkal scheme, the fee has been increased to INR6,000 from INR4,000, according to news reports.

Higher charges for replacement of lost or damaged passports

The revised rules also increase the fee for replacement passports issued in cases of loss or damage.

Under the new structure, the fee for replacing a lost or damaged 36-page passport has been fixed at INR5,000. Meanwhile, applicants seeking a replacement for a lost or damaged 60-page passport will have to pay INR6,000.

The revised payment structure has been introduced through amendments to the Passports Rules, 1980.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 24 of the Passports Act, 1967 (15 of 1967), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Passports Rules, 1980, namely — 1. (1) These rules may be called the Passports (Amendment) Rules, 2026. (2) They shall come into force with effect from the 1st day of July, 2026,” the Ministry of External Affairs’ notification reads.

Validity rules and fee concession remain unchanged

The Ministry also reiterated the validity period for passports issued under the revised rules.

“The validity of passports issued under serial number I(a) shall not exceed ten years, and the validity of passports issued under serial number I(b) shall be for five years or until the applicant attains the age of 18 years, whichever is earlier,” the MEA said.

The notification further confirmed that certain categories of applicants will continue to receive a fee concession.

“There shall be a discount of ten per cent in passport fee for fresh applications (and not for re-issue) in respect of minors up to the age of 8 years and senior citizens (persons above the age of 60 years),” it added.

Separately, the Ministry of External Affairs recently clarified that an Indian passport is strictly a travel document and should not be treated as conclusive proof of citizenship. Officials said the primary purpose of a passport is to facilitate international travel and establish the holder’s identity while abroad, an NDTV news report conveyed.

The revised fee structure is expected to affect all fresh passport applicants and those seeking reissues or Tatkal services from July 1 onwards.