AI Everywhere — In The UAE And In The Cloud

A few weeks ago I went to GITEX, one of the largest technology events in the Middle East. It had been a long time since I’d been in Dubai. Wow, was it hot — literally and figuratively. GITEX was back in 2021, in full force, with masked participants from over a hundred countries. The event organizers claim 100,000 participants and 4,000 exhibitors. Regardless of the actual numbers, there was definitely a positive energy throughout the event.

As for the weather, it didn’t disappoint, the week started with a high of 39℃, and with highs never dipping below 34℃ the rest of the week. For our fahrenheit friends, that’s a high of 102℉ on Sunday, and never below 93℉. My conveniently located hotel meant a short but very hot walk to the convention center. Do you walk quickly to get out of the heat or very slowly to prevent breaking into sweat? Answer: neither works at those temperatures.

GITEX x AI Everything 2021

The theme of the event was AI Everything, with sessions highlighting projects about digital transformation and the impact of AI. Vendors demonstrated solutions to enable these innovations. Snowflake proudly participated for the first time with a booth on the show floor, a customer speaker on the Digital Economy stage, and my participation in two panels on the impact of AI.

The enthusiasm around the Snowflake booth was palpable. Everyone was eager to learn more and excited to hear of our growing presence in the region. The team — and our customer base — has grown considerably. And, the panels on AI were well attended. But the highlight of Snowflake’s presence was the presentation by the team at Emirates Airlines on how they’ve used Snowflake to power their data science work.

One of the projects they discussed was on food waste, a topic I’ve often addressed in my Forrester research. Did you know that 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted globally every year? That’s across the board from production to distribution, at grocery stores, restaurants and in homes. But that also includes food waste in the airline industry, which isn’t something you hear much about. Approximately 2 million tons of food is wasted across the airline industry globally, every year.

For those of us who fly, we’ve experienced the issue of supply and demand. Your first choice is not always available, and sometimes you just don’t want the only choice that’s left. OK, so it’s definitely a first world problem but in the services industry, customers come first.

Emirates prides itself on excellent customer service, particularly for its first and business class guests. So the last thing they want is to disappoint. In the past, the only option was to order enough meals for everyone to be able to choose what they want. With 14 seats in first class and 76 seats in business in an A380, that meant ordering 90 servings of each choice. And, at the end of the flight there was a lot of food wasted. Emirates used machine learning to predict customers’ meal preferences, optimize their orders, and reduce food waste, all while ensuring the level of customer service and maintaining customer satisfaction. That’s a win-win-win for the airline, the customer, and the planet.

I loved the use case because it illustrates how AI can help address challenges that companies have in understanding their customers and improving their business. But it also illustrates the need for performance and scale in an AI and data platform. Emirates needed to be able to adjust orders quickly, and that required access to their data quickly.

As Naveed Memon, Program Director, Data and Analytics for Emirates, told Snowflake at last year’s Summit,

“Right now, the ability to personalize offers and service for our passengers is our biggest asset. Data collection and analysis plays an essential role in determining how we can best serve customers — right down to the catering services we offer in our planes.”

Moving to the cloud gave the Emirates team the speed they needed, but also allowed them to “focus on business features, versus deployment and maintenance.”

Cloud Adoption Grows In the Gulf Region

While public cloud adoption in the region has lagged other regions, the interest is there. Public cloud adoption is expected to reach 28% by the end of 2022, according to an IDC study. But the vast majority of survey respondents report plans to move to the cloud in the next two years. The sticking point has been the lack of local public cloud instances, and a lack of clarity in government regulations.

That first point is soon to be truly unstuck. The first to invest, Microsoft opened its first cloud region in the UAE in 2019. And, soon there will be more choices. AWS’s first cloud region in the UAE will open in the first half of 2022. And, Google announced plans to open a cloud region in Saudi Arabia.

As CIOs watch these developments, and follow new government guidelines, they continue to make plans to move to the cloud. According to IDC, 84% of survey respondents reported that they have either adopted public cloud or have plans to adopt public cloud in the next two years. The region is definitely getting cloudier, but likely remaining very hot!

At Snowflake, Teamwork Is Dreamwork

The other highlight of the event for me was meeting our growing Snowflake team in the region and getting to know some of our customers and prospects better. The excitement is palpable. And, frankly, I can’t wait to go back.

Stay tuned for a deeper dive into the panels on AI that I participated in and for more about Snowflake in the region.