Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic vision in healthcare, it’s happening now, and it’s making surgeries safer, faster, and more precise.

This is according to top experts speaking at the WHX Tech event, which is taking place from September 8-10 in Dubai.

Sandip Kumar, chief digital and innovation officer at King’s College Hospital London, UAE, told Gulf Business how AI is already being deployed in the region’s operating rooms. “In procedures like endoscopy, where a camera is inserted into the body, AI modules help detect cancers or anomalies in real time,” he said.

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AI systems can scan a 15-minute endoscopic video and highlight potential areas of concern within seconds, enabling surgeons to act quickly and focus their attention where it’s most needed.

Beyond endoscopy, AI also plays a background but crucial role in robotic-assisted surgeries. These systems continuously monitor procedures in real time, detecting anomalies and ensuring quality standards are met. “It acts like a second set of eyes, supporting the surgical team,” Kumar explained.

In Australia, AI is now a standard component in stroke care. Automated systems can swiftly identify brain hemorrhages, pinpoint their location, and even assist robotic platforms in navigating to the affected site with surgical precision. “Every second counts in stroke cases. We used AI extensively for rapid intervention during my time at a stroke center in Australia,” Kumar added.

Simple tools, big impact

AI’s application extends beyond complex interventions. It’s also solving basic but critical challenges in the operating theater.

“Globally, there’s a consistent issue, surgeries often begin without all the required specialised tools,” Kumar noted. General theater kits, rather than procedure-specific ones, are commonly used. The result? Instruments go missing mid-surgery, delaying critical operations.

AI is addressing this with computer vision systems that validate instruments before procedures begin. These technologies ensure sterility, verify tools, and match surgical kits to specific procedures. “This might seem basic, but it’s essential. Getting this right means fewer delays and better patient outcomes,” Kumar emphasised.

The UAE’s digital infrastructure: Ready for AI surge

The UAE has already built a robust foundation for healthcare innovation. From the Abu Dhabi Health Information Exchange (Malaffi) to mandates for unified electronic medical records, the digital groundwork is solid.

According to Kumar, it’s now time for the country to move from infrastructure building to application. “The next phase is execution. We need to expose this data meaningfully to create innovations that are truly patient-centric.”

At King’s College Hospital in Dubai, that shift is already underway. “Since I joined, we’ve launched over 15 AI initiatives designed to directly impact patient outcomes,” Kumar said.

One standout use case is in breast radiology. Patients undergoing mammograms at King’s are assessed by both a seasoned radiologist and an AI system called Lunit AI. The tool serves as a diagnostic co-pilot, scanning images to detect subtle patterns that might escape the human eye.

“We’re also deploying similar technologies in pathology,” Kumar added. “We analyse blood tests and medical histories using AI to detect patterns that could predict disease, even before symptoms appear.”

From lab results to layman’s terms: AI in patient communication

Another area showing promise is ambient listening technology, designed to summarise doctor-patient consultations in real time. These AI systems listen passively during appointments and generate summaries, both for the clinician and the patient.

“Often, patients forget half of what their doctor tells them before they even reach the parking lot,” Kumar said. “This technology bridges that gap.”

Importantly, the system translates medical jargon into plain language. A patient might receive a recap like: “You saw Dr A, the consultation was about X. Your recommendations were A, B, and C. Here’s what that means for you.”

This transparency ensures clarity and helps patients follow through with care plans more effectively.

Bias in AI: A global problem with local solutions

Despite its promise, AI in healthcare carries a significant risk: bias.

“AI can be the great equaliser, but only if it’s developed and applied equitably,” said Dr Harvey Castro, MD, an advisor on AI and healthcare to the Singapore Government. He made the statement during a session at the WHX Tech event.

“If you train a model on one population and use it on another, you’re asking for misdiagnosis,” he warned.

To counter this, Dr Castro strongly advocates for region-specific AI training. “Models should be trained by ZIP code, by community, by region. Different hospitals serve different demographics. The one-size-fits-all model simply doesn’t work in healthcare.”

This need is particularly urgent in multicultural nations like the UAE, where diverse populations access care. Without localised AI training, outcomes risk becoming skewed and potentially dangerous.

Robots and empathy: Augmenting, not replacing, humans

Dr Castro also highlighted the synergy between robotics and human empathy as critical to the future of medicine. “We’re not replacing doctors with robots, we’re augmenting them,” he explained.

In practice, this could look like smart glasses feeding subtle cues to a physician during a patient interaction: “Check the patient’s left ear,” or “Don’t forget to ask about family history.” These prompts, driven by real-time AI analysis, enhance human judgment.

Repetitive tasks, charting, measuring, logistics, can be offloaded to machines. “This frees clinicians to focus on what really matters: presence, empathy, and nuanced decision-making.”

Some areas of healthcare are already seeing fully autonomous AI applications. In Singapore, for instance, medication kiosks refill prescriptions post-teleconsultation, without any human intervention.

“For stable, low-risk cases like routine diabetes meds, this kind of automation is safe and highly efficient,” Dr Castro noted.

However, both Castro and Kumar stress that human oversight remains essential for complex, emotional, or high-stakes decisions. “We still need doctors. We just need them with better tools,” said Castro.

The need for regulation: A ‘nutrition label’ for AI

As AI becomes embedded in clinical workflows, governance is becoming the most critical issue. Today, even general-purpose tools like ChatGPT are being used in medical settings, despite lacking certification for such use.

“That’s dangerous,” Dr Castro warned. “We need transparency, like a nutrition label for AI.”

Just as consumers review ingredients and calorie counts, healthcare providers need to understand what an AI model was trained on, where it’s accurate, and where it could be risky.

“If it was trained on 40-year-old white males, we shouldn’t expect it to work flawlessly on 20-year-old women or a South Asian population,” he said. “Countries must invest in training their own models with their own data. It’s expensive, yes. But it’s the only way to ensure safety and fairness.”

A future that’s human and AI, not human vs AI

Artificial intelligence is poised to become healthcare’s most powerful tool, but only if it’s deployed ethically, regulated responsibly, and integrated humanely.

From surgical suites in Dubai to telemedicine kiosks in Singapore, the message is clear: AI isn’t about replacing doctors. It’s about giving them superpowers.

As Sandip Kumar put it, “Now is the time to move from building infrastructure to delivering true, patient-focused innovation. The tools are here. Let’s use them the right way.”

Money20/20 Middle East has announced a top line-up of founding partners for its inaugural event in Riyadh this September, marking a major milestone in Saudi Arabia’s ambition to become a global fintech hub.

AlRajhi Bank, Riyad Bank, STC Bank, Saudi National Bank, Tamara, Visa and Vision Bank have signed on as founding partners for the region’s premier fintech gathering.

These institutions will help shape the strategic direction and content of the event, which will run from 15-17 September 2025 at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham.

The event is expected to draw more than 45,000 attendees and over 600 international investors, with 450-plus exhibiting brands. Anchored under the theme “Where Money Does Business,” discussions will span AI in finance, open banking, regulation, and inclusive innovation.

Ali Bailoun, Visa’s regional general manager for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman, said the event comes at a pivotal moment.

“As Saudi Arabia advances toward Vision 2030, the interplay of digital infrastructure, open banking, and inclusive innovation is transforming interactions with money,” said Bailoun.

“At Visa, we view this as a chance to enhance collaboration within the ecosystem and support the creation of secure and accessible payment experiences for the GCC,” Bailoun added.
Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, co-founder and CEO of Tamara, said the event will help fast-track innovation.

“Becoming a founding partner of Money20/20 Middle East puts us right where we want to be, at the centre of global fintech momentum. It’s not just about visibility, it’s about building meaningful partnerships and accelerating growth,” Alsukhan noted.

Annabelle Mander, executive vice president of Tahaluf, which is organising the event, highlighted its regional importance.

“The calibre of sponsors and partners supporting Money20/20 Middle East reflects the strategic importance of this event for the region,” said Mander.

“These organisations are active architects of financial innovation who recognise the power of bringing the global fintech community to this dynamic market,” she added.

The list of sponsors also includes JP Morgan, Mastercard, Bupa, Ant International, Mambu, Tabby, Tap Payments, Tiqmo, Banque Saudi Fransi and SME Bank, underscoring the event’s scale and global appeal.

Money20/20 Middle East will feature executive networking lounges, curated meeting programmes, and an AI-powered matchmaking platform to connect sponsors, investors and fintech innovators.

Meanwhile, Riyadh is the latest city to join the Money20/20 event series, which has been running for more than a decade. Other hosts for the flagship event include Amsterdam, Las Vegas, Bangkok and São Paulo. Over time, it has become widely recognised as the world’s leading fintech conference series, bringing together innovators, regulators, and investors to shape the future of money on a global stage.

Investors today are increasingly seeking more than just financial returns—they want their wealth to reflect their values. Sustainable and ESG investing has captured global attention, but in the Middle East, Islamic, or Sharia-compliant, investing is rapidly gaining traction.

While both approaches align money with meaning, Islamic investing comes with additional complexity, requiring adherence to strict Sharia principles across the entire investment value chain. Habib Bank AG Zurich, traditionally a conventional bank, sees this as a significant opportunity. With inquiries for Sharia-compliant investment solutions steadily increasing among its clients, the bank has developed a carefully structured offering focused primarily on discretionary portfolio management, guided by external Sharia advisors and Swiss best practices.

We spoke with Dr David Wartenweiler, CIO at Habib Bank AG Zurich, to understand the bank’s approach, challenges, and how Islamic investing is evolving in the region. Here are excerpts from the chat.

What trends are you seeing among investors regarding purpose-driven portfolios?

Many investors today expect more than financial returns. Increasingly, they want investments that reflect their values, not just profit. In our region, Sharia-compliant investing is resonating with a growing demographic, much like sustainable and ESG investing globally. Both approaches align money with meaning, but Islamic investing is more demanding in its implementation.

Why has Islamic investing traditionally been limited in conventional banks?

Islamic investing requires strict compliance with Sharia across most of the value chain, not just selection criteria. Conventional banks often face challenges in ensuring complete integrity and transparency, which is why this space has mostly been dominated by specialist Islamic banks and asset managers. Many conventional private banks have been hesitant to enter this space due to these additional hurdles.

How is Habib Bank approaching these challenges?

As a conventional bank, we needed to ensure full compliance with Islamic finance principles at every stage. Credibility demands transparency with clients—not only what we can provide but also what we cannot. We engaged an external Sharia advisor to audit and approve our processes and obtained a Fatwa to ensure compliance. We decided to focus on discretionary portfolio management since this allows us to maintain full control over the value chain.

What changes have you made to your processes for Islamic offerings?

We’ve established separate processes for management agreements, investment processes, and segregated custody of all discretionary Islamic investment holdings. Certain conventional banking features were disabled to ensure strict compliance and integrity at all times.

How do you select investment instruments for Islamic portfolios?

Not all Islamic assets are suitable for investment management purposes. We focus on liquid instruments like sukuk and equities, both as single line items and in Sharia-compliant collective investments. Every instrument passes our financial screens and must meet Sharia criteria. Our external advisor is the final arbiter to avoid conflicts of interest, and periodic reviews ensure instruments are replaced if they no longer comply.

How do you balance Sharia compliance with delivering returns?

The ultimate goal remains to deliver the best possible returns to our clients. However, every decision is made strictly within the Islamic remit. By combining Swiss best practices with Sharia oversight, we ensure portfolios are both ethical and financially robust.

Read: Habib Bank AG Zurich: Strategies for generational wealth transfer

Two of the most important undersea cables in global communications – SEA-ME-WE 4 (SMW4) and IMEWE – were damaged near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia over the weekend, disrupting connectivity across the Middle East, South Asia and parts of Africa.

Read more: Slower internet in UAE, wider region amid Red Sea cable cuts

While service providers worked to reroute traffic to keep networks running, the incident has highlighted just how crucial these systems are to the world’s digital economy — and how fragile the infrastructure beneath our oceans can be.

SEA-ME-WE 4 (SMW4) and IMEWE are key arteries of global connectivity, carrying a large share of data between Asia, the Middle East and Europe. They support everything from cloud services and video streaming to airline booking systems and international banking.

Fortunately, there are dozens of submarine cables serving the GCC. Industry mapping by Equinix counts 34 subsea cable systems landing at 18 cable-landing stations on the Arabian Peninsula, while TeleGeography’s interactive map shows a dense cluster of systems landing on the Arabian Gulf and the adjacent Arabian Sea coasts (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman).

When a cable is damaged, network operators typically reroute internet traffic through other regional systems, using backup capacity built into the global network. This redundancy prevents a total blackout and keeps most services online. However, the alternative routes are often longer or already near capacity, resulting in slower speeds, higher latency and occasional service disruptions.

The Red Sea corridor itself carries about 17 per cent of global internet traffic.

At the time of writing, it’s not clear how SEA-ME-WE 4 (SMW4) and IMEWE were damaged. But listed below is an explainer of why these cables are important.

SEA-ME-WE 4: a 20,000km superhighway

The South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) cable is one of the world’s most extensive submarine fibre-optic systems. According to Submarine Networks, it stretches between 19,200 and 20,000km and connects 14 countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France.

The system has been operational since December 2005 and is owned by a consortium of 16 telecom operators, including Etisalat (UAE), STC (Saudi Arabia), Tata Communications (India), Singtel (Singapore) and Telecom Egypt.

When first launched, SMW4 had a total design capacity of 1.28 terabits per second (Tbps) across two fibre pairs. In 2015, Mitsubishi Electric upgraded the system to 4.6 Tbps, and in 2024 it was modernised with Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme, enabling up to 450Gbps per wavelength, according to vendor releases published by the likes of Ciena and Mitsubishi.

SMW4 plays a key role in linking Asia to Europe, forming part of the backbone that supports mobile operators, cloud services and international communications. Although newer systems like SEA-ME-WE 5 and 6 have been built, SMW4 remains an essential backup and redundancy route for the region.

IMEWE: Bandwidth from India to Europe

The India–Middle East–Western Europe (IMEWE) cable complements SMW4 by providing additional bandwidth along a similar route, with more direct connections. According to TeleGeography’s Submarine Cable Map, IMEWE spans approximately 12,091km and links India, Pakistan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Italy and France.

IMEWE went live in December 2010 and is run by a consortium including Bharti Airtel, Etisalat, Orange, STC, Tata Communications, Pakistan Telecom and Telecom Italia Sparkle.

The system launched with three fibre pairs and a total capacity of 3.84 Tbps, which was upgraded over the years: to 4.8 Tbps in 2012 through 40Gbps DWDM technology, to 5.6 Tbps in 2016 via 100Gbps DWDM, and then enhanced again in 2019 with Ciena’s WaveLogic Ai, enabling 200Gbps per wavelength, according to Submarine Networks and TeleGeography.

IMEWE provides a direct, low-latency path between India and Europe, crucial for sectors that rely on real-time connectivity, such as finance, cloud computing and aviation.

Submarine cables such as SMW4 and IMEWE are feats of engineering. Each contains multiple hair-thin optical fibres encased in layers of steel, copper and waterproof insulation. Data travels at roughly two-thirds the speed of light, making these cables faster and more reliable than satellites. Modern systems can carry tens of terabits of data per second, enough to stream millions of HD videos simultaneously.

The Red Sea’s shallow waters and heavy shipping traffic make it especially vulnerable to accidental damage. In early 2024, three cables were severed after a vessel struck by Houthis drifted into a protected cable zone, causing weeks of disruption, according to Reuters.

Repairing these systems is complex and costly. The International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) estimates that each fix costs $1m to $3m and can take weeks or even months, depending on depth, weather and the availability of specialised cable ships.

To improve resilience, operators are investing in next-generation systems such as SEA-ME-WE 6, which promises higher capacity and built-in redundancy.

But as global data usage continues to surge, older systems like SMW4 and IMEWE will remain critical for years to come.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, of which beIN MEDIA GROUP is a key member, has announced the shutdown of Streameast, one of the largest piracy networks globally. The operation was successfully executed in collaboration with Egyptian authorities.

“ACE scored a resounding victory in its fight to detect, deter, and dismantle criminal perpetrators of digital piracy: by taking down the largest illegal live sports platform anywhere,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman of ACE and chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). “With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide—and our global alliance will stay on the field as long as it takes to identify and target the biggest piracy rings across the globe.”

Streameast, operating through 80 associated domains, recorded over 1.6 billion visits in the past year, making it the largest illicit live sports streaming operation worldwide. The platform offered unauthorised access to top European soccer leagues, including England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1, and Portugal’s Primeira Liga. It also streamed UEFA club competitions, such as the Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League, as well as international qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro, UEFA Nations League, and CONMEBOL Copa America. In addition, the United States’ Major League Soccer (MLS) and domestic cup competitions were also available illegally.

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“We congratulate ACE on this landmark enforcement action. Piracy is not a victimless crime – it undermines the entire sports economy, from rights holders and leagues to athletes and fans. The success of this operation proves that with strong international cooperation and robust enforcement, no illegal network is beyond reach. beIN MEDIA GROUP is proud to stand with ACE in continuing to pursue and dismantle criminal piracy operations wherever they exist,” said Cameron Andrews, legal director, Anti-Piracy, beIN MEDIA GROUP.

Beyond soccer, Streameast provided access to piracy sites covering American sports, including the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Baseball (MLB). The network also hosted unauthorised streams for pay-per-view boxing, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and motorsports such as Formula One and MotoGP.

As a committed member of ACE, beIN MEDIA GROUP reiterates its dedication to protecting the value of live sport and safeguarding the future of the global sports and entertainment industry, in partnership with rights holders, leagues, and governments worldwide.