After an insightful first day, day 2 of the Data Innovation Summit MEA 2026 deepened the focus on execution discipline, operationalizing AI governance, productionizing autonomous workflows, and building sustainable, domain-driven data ecosystems.
Plenary Keynotes (Stage P1)
Summit Chairman Armin Kech reopened the plenary stage, setting the theme for Day 2 around embedding governance and intelligence into daily operational workflows.
Giovanni Leoni, AI Governance Evangelist, delivered the opening keynote, “Operationalising AI Governance as Enabler for AI Value Realisation.” Drawing on his leadership roles at Novo Nordisk, Inter IKEA Group, and Accenture, Leoni argued that governance must evolve beyond static policy documents and operational dashboards to become deeply embedded in organizational culture, human judgment, and enterprise processes.
Future Outlook
A major highlight of the event was the forward-looking “Future Outlook“ panel discussion on the future landscape of technology and data strategy. Majd Khabour (Strategic Advisor to the Chief AI Officer at Dubai Health Authority), Dmitry Menshenin (Head of Insights and Analytics at Sanofi), Kelly Machado (AI & Software Architect at webtek-AI and Executive Board Member at Woman Business Circle), and Khulood Alawadhi (Director of Advanced Technology Services at Moro Hub) shared their strategic visions for the sector. Together, they explored emerging trends, organizational transformation, and the evolving role of AI and analytics in driving long-term innovation.
Amr Metwally, Assistant Executive Director at Itqan Clinical Simulation & Innovation Center (Hamad Medical Corporation), presented “The Last Competitive Advantage: Winning in a World Where Intelligence Is Free.” Metwally examined how leadership, trust, and execution excellence replace technology ownership as competitive differentiators as AI evolves toward agentic systems and abundant intelligence.
Closing the plenary program for the summit, Sergii Sokoliuk, Insights & Analytics Lead (International Region) at Philips, delivered “The Organization That Learns: Building a Company That Gets Better with Every Decision.” Sokoliuk demonstrated how Philips reframes analytics around sustained business improvement by making decision assumptions explicit, tracking outcomes accountable, and using AI to maintain institutional memory across cycles. 
Track Highlights
Across the other dedicated stages, speakers explored how organizations in the Middle East and Africa can establish accountable governance, streamline architectures, and embed intelligent systems into core operations.
AI Strategy & Governance Stage (Stage M1)
Following opening remarks by moderator Gautam Verma, Mustafa Merchant, AI Leader and Special Projects PMO at InstaShop, opened the presentations by illustrating how to build operating models that connect AI and analytics directly to measurable enterprise performance. Karl Henrik Nilsson, Head of Group IT Architecture at GAC Group, delivered “The Cheapest AI Optimization Is Better Engineering,” advocating for software architecture discipline and efficient engineering over raw compute spending.
In the afternoon, Dr. Fayid Kadambodan, Assistant Director of Enterprise Solutions at DIEZ, presented operating models for unifying fragmented enterprise systems across complex public-sector environments into AI-ready foundations. Closing Stage M1, Dr. Mubarak AbdulSalam, AI Strategist at Ducab, presented “From Pilot to Enterprise: Governing Agentic AI in the Real World,” covering vendor due diligence, SAP Joule AI integration, and agentic governance across complex supply chains.
Data Strategy & Governance Stage (Stage M2)
Stage Moderator Mohamed Adil Elsayed Elmaki, Senior Manager of Data Analytics & AI at EY, welcomed Haneen Abdulmageed, Head of Data Governance – MENA at Nestlé, who opened the track with “Governing by Design,” explaining how to embed governance directly into shared data products rather than retrofitting it after deployment. Andre Lopes, Senior Software Engineer at Tesla, followed with a practical infrastructure-as-code demonstration on unlocking serverless architectures using Terraform. Busisiwe Tshabalala, Senior Data Governance Manager at Alshaya Group, presented on domain-driven data governance and metadata standardization across multi-market retail operations.
Later in the day, Hussein Takch, Senior Program Manager and Head of Business Transformation at MBC Group, presented hub-and-spoke transformation models designed to align corporate functions across complex media businesses. Darja Galante, Global Head of Compliance Operations & Strategy at VEON Group, examined international enforcement realities, ABAC, and third-party risk management in regulated technology and telecom markets. Closing Stage M2, Sandeep Singh Thakur, Associate Director of Data Analytics at Dubai Holding Group Services, detailed automated decision frameworks across corporate Finance, HR, and Procurement functions.
Partner of this stage was Fivetran.
Analytics & Decision Intelligence Stage (Stage M3)
After opening remarks from moderator Gopi Maren, Global AI Delegate – UAE at the Global Alliance for Artificial Intelligence, Wassim Ibrahim, Head of Data Advisory at WSP, presented on digital twins, illustrating how connecting physical asset data with predictive AI creates real-time operational decision support. Saima Ali, Director of Data & Analytics at OSN, delivered “From Insight to Action: Why Most Analytics Fails at the Last Mile,” sharing methods for embedding analytics directly into day-to-day media operations. Himanshu Manglunia, Senior Manager of Data Analytics at Tamara, discussed strategies for bridging the analytics impact gap in high-growth fintech environments.
In the afternoon, Ilias Krikelis, Procurement Director at GWC, detailed the transformation of procurement into an AI-ready function through spend forensics and operational automation. Prem Kumar Ramamoorhty, Data Science & Analytics Leader at KOUT FOOD GROUP, wrapped up Stage M3 with “From Dashboards to Decisions: Building AI-Powered Decision Intelligence for Enterprise Transformation”. The stage closed with the remarks from Pierre Sahkian, Senior Strategy & AI Transformation Leader.
Partner of this stage was ClickHouse.
Machine Learning, Gen. & Agentic AI Stage (Stage M4)
Moderated by Michael Malek, Director of Data Management, the stage opened with Alaa Moussawi, Chief Data Scientist for the NYC Council, who shared how his team designs open-source NLP, RAG architectures, and automated workflow tools to power municipal legislative strategy. Ramin Hoodeh, AI Product Manager and creator of the AI-Native Product OS, presented product management frameworks tailored for probabilistic AI systems operating in high-stakes environments. Geeta Khatwani, Head of AI & Digital Transformation at Sanne, then detailed the technical transition from predictive machine learning models to autonomous enterprise agents.
In the afternoon session, Bhargav Pandillapalli, Data Science Manager at Mastercard, delivered a technical deep dive on fine-tuning large language models for domain-specific fraud detection and financial risk products. Closing the M4 stage, Waseem Akram Syed, Director of Data & AI at The Entertainer, presented agentic AI architectures designed to drive hyper-personalized consumer engagement across subscription platforms.
Partner on this stage was Snowflake.
Conclusion Of The Event
The Data Innovation Summit MEA 2026 concluded in the Plenum Area, where Chairman Armin Kech delivered the event’s closing remarks. His final words brought to a close to two days defined by thoughtful dialogue, shared expertise, and forward-looking exploration across Data, Analytics, and AI.
With the conclusion of the Data Innovation Summit MEA 2026, two days of shared expertise, and visionary ideas come to a close. The event owed its depth to the collective contributions of its speakers, partners, and delegates, and team, each playing a key role in shaping the evolving landscape of Data, Analytics, and AI. While the event itself has concluded, the connections forged and ideas sparked here will undoubtedly continue to drive forward-thinking innovation until the community meets again for the 2027 edition.
Check the media library for talks from other events.
About DIS MEA & The Organizers
The Data Innovation Summit MEA (Middle East & Africa) is the region’s leading annual conference dedicated to data-driven and AI-ready enterprise transformation. Constructed to address the core pillars of modern digital business—Data, People, Processes, and Technology—the summit bridges technical execution with executive strategy across plenary keynotes, track presentations, live showcases, and hands-on workshops.
The summit is organized by Hyperight, an international media and event production company specializing in data management, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence content. Hyperight designs practitioner-led knowledge platforms worldwide to help enterprise decision-makers and technical leaders accelerate digital innovation and scale responsible AI adoption.
