Media Release
Dubai, Aug 26: KE Dubai is gearing up for an exciting and thought-provoking evening that will put one of today’s biggest business conversations in the spotlight — Artificial Intelligence — and why businesses of every size must begin engaging with AI now to remain competitive.
As Artificial Intelligence moves rapidly from experimentation to everyday business reality, organisations across industries are being challenged to rethink how they operate, compete and grow. But becoming AI-ready is not only about adopting the latest tools or adding ChatGPT to the workplace. It is also about knowing where to start, what to use safely today, and how to build the foundations for deeper transformation tomorrow.
The upcoming KE Dubai event will go beyond the AI hype to explore two connected journeys: how professionals and businesses can use practical AI tools immediately, and how organisations can progressively become AI-ready across strategy, processes, data, people and governance.
Adding to the relevance of the evening, the conversation will be led by two accomplished technology and digital transformation experts from within the KE community — Ryan D’Souza and Dr Shashi Punjabi. Their perspectives are designed to complement each other — combining hands-on AI adoption for everyday work with the enterprise transformation discipline required to scale AI responsibly.
The session will explore why AI adoption is fast becoming a business imperative, the risks of being left behind, and how businesses can identify where they stand today, start with practical use cases, and begin building a roadmap for tomorrow.
Ryan D’Souza will focus on the practical side of AI adoption — how professionals and businesses can begin using today’s AI tools for productivity, prompting, research, communication, documents, spreadsheets, presentations and real business problem-solving.
Dr Shashi Punjabi will complement this with the enterprise perspective — exploring the strategy, processes, data, people, governance and cybersecurity foundations required to deploy AI successfully at scale.
Meet the Speakers:
Ryan D’Souza
Ryan D’Souza is Senior Technical Lead at FutureOS, where he is involved in building AI and technology solutions for Expo City Dubai. With more than 20 years of experience spanning automotive technology, AI products and smart-city platforms, Ryan brings extensive hands-on experience in developing and implementing emerging technologies.
He is also the founder of ArtisanAI and AIJobsUAE, initiatives reflecting his continued engagement with the evolving AI ecosystem and its impact on businesses, professionals and the future of work.
Dr Shashi Punjabi
Dr Shashi Punjabi is the former head of Digital Transformation at IBM, where he led large-scale AI and automation initiatives across EMEA, including transformation programmes for Fortune 500 organisations.
Today, at Hareket MEA, he is advancing enterprise technologies including ChatGPT Enterprise, Zero Trust security and next-generation data ecosystems, bringing a strategic perspective on what organisations need — technologically, operationally and culturally — to successfully navigate the AI era.
The evening is designed to take participants on a journey from immediate, practical AI adoption to the larger transformation required for AI-ready organisations.
Whether an organisation is still heavily dependent on spreadsheets, experimenting with AI tools, automating individual processes or already considering enterprise-wide AI transformation, the session will offer practical perspectives on the next step — from starting small and safely to scaling with discipline.
The message is simple: AI does not have to begin with a major transformation programme, but businesses that want to use AI deeply and reliably must progressively strengthen their processes, data, systems, people and governance.
Start small. Start safely. Start with a real business problem. But start now. Come curious. Leave with an AI roadmap!
Event Details:
Date: Saturday, August 29, 2026
Time: 6 pm Dubai Time
Venue: TIME Oak Hotel & Suites, Barsha, Dubai