Bridging Knowledge & Building the Nation

We are truly honored to have you with us today. On behalf of ADJM Academy, I extend heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for your support throughout our journey. Over the past seven years, our academy has been a beacon of success, ideas, and innovation. Today we gather to mark yet another milestone in this remarkable journey. Let's start by taking a moment to appreciate what this journey represents.

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for what you are. Leadership and guidance are essential at every stage of life. In the UAE, we are truly blessed with exemplary leadership within and within our institutions, we are equally privileged to be steered by visionary leaders who inspire progress and excellence. At ADGM Academy, we take pride in having such notable leadership at the helm. It is therefore my great honor to invite his excellency Sah Mazui, chairman of ADGM Academy to the stage to deliver the opening remarks.

Your excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, a very good afternoon and it's honor to welcome you to this important gathering of ADGM Academy and Abu Dhabi Finance Week. This year carries profound meaning as we mark seven years of ADGMademy's journey. A journey of growth, transformation, and national impact. Our d direction has always been guided by the vision of the UAE's president and ruler of his highness she Muhammad bin Zidan hayam who emphasized that we celebrate the ambition and achievements of youth in a better future for all. His highness reminded us that empowering our youth is essential to our nation's continued progress.

At ADGM Academy, the vision is not just as an inspiration. It is for it is our mandate. We see the promise in our youth. Their creativity, their resilience, and their unwavering devotion to serve our beloved UAE. Since our establishment, the academy has grown into far more than an institution.

It has became a national engine for human capital excellence. This the last time I stood here, we have created or we've been a support to create more than 5,000 jobs. And today we stand at double that impact. A milestone that once felt ambitious now proudly achieved. We have empowered over 9,500 IRA with the skill to thrive, enabled more than 6,000 to secure roles, access key sectors, and supported 800 entrepreneurs across 140 sectors.

These are not just numbers. They are milestones of hope. They are stories of families uplifted. They are the milestone that move our nation forward. And our commitment does not end here.

ADGM Academy is building the capabilities that will power Abu Dhabi next economic chapter in AI, agreech, agriculture, green technologies, advanced manufacturing and other strategic sector critical to our nation's competitiveness. Our mandate is clear to remain aligned with Abu Dhabi's economic direction and prepare Imiratis for the roles of the emerging across priority industry. We have evolved with national strategies collaborating with worldclass institutions to ensure our people are equipped with the global standard skills. This how we safeguard. This is how we empower Imiratis to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

But the mission is not ours alone. It is a it is a shared national responsibility and we call on every contributor, government, industry, community to join us hand in hand to advance this agenda and to ensure the UAE's remain a global leader in innovation, resilience and prosperity. And as we approach 2026, the year of the family, our mission becomes even more meaningful. Next year, ADGM Academy will place a dedicated focus in advance advancing family businesses and nurturing family-based entrepreneurship, aiming to cultivate at least one entrepreneur in every Imirati household because because every Imirati we empower strengthens is a family and every family strengthen our nation and as we reflect on these seven remarkable years. I extend my sincere appreciation to all government entities, institutions and partners present today.

Your trust and collaboration that have been the backbone of our progress and to the academy team, my deepest gratitude. Every milestone we reach rest on your dedication, your talent and your commitment to the excellence. Your excellencies, distinguished guests, thank you for your presence, your support and your belief in our mission to develop the next generation of Imirati leaders and advance our nation's path forward. Thank you. Thank you, your excellency, for your inspiring and insightful words.

As we continue our program today, we will showcase the talents and bright minds that reflect our journey from our roots to the future we are building together. My colleague Hassa will join us on stage to lead the next stage of the program. Fore! Foreign! Foreign!

for mechan. Your excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, salam allayikum. The United Arab Arab Emirates has always been a land of vision where ambition meets opportunity and where big ideas are not just imagined but built. From our pearl diving ancestors who faced the sea with bravery and hope to the innovators shaping our modern knowledge economy, this nation has always honored resilience, creativity, and the courage to dream boldly. This segment celebrates the passion and entrepreneurial drive of UAE nationals who are building businesses that honor our heritage and embrace innovation and push the boundaries of possibility.

At ADGM Academy, supporting Imirati talent has always been the heart of our mission. This segment of the event will also feature an award ceremony to celebrate the outstanding achievements of our entrepreneurs. The first award is the People's Choice Award voted by the audience, you through a QR code on the screen during the award ceremony. Please ensure you have your phones on hand. This award recognizes the pitch that resonates an idea that is clear, engaging, and leaves a memorable impression.

The second award is the community champion award. This award recognizes the entrepreneur whose idea streng strengthens the community and creates meaningful social impact. And finally for the last pitch award, it's the pitch excellence award. And this award honors the pitch that demonstrates clarity, confidence, innovation, and strong strategic thinking. Before we begin, I would like to introduce our esteemed jury organizations for today's showcase.

Cert Hub71 and Khalifa Fund. Their support and expertise play an essential role in recognizing and elevating Emirati talent. We are we are honored to have them with us today. And now let's meet the inspiring Amirati entrepreneurs presenting their ideas. We have Dr.

Safi Hashmi pitching a Sophia Pure Tech Abdman Shahi pitching Draco smart system Mansuri pitching Kina's studio. Please join join me in welcoming them and giving them a round of applause. Pitching first, we have Dr. Safi Hashmi. Pitching second, Abdman Shahi.

Presenting third would be Alia Mansuri. Thank you. Do you know that the items you trust most, including kitchen cutting boards, non-stick cookware, fast food packaging, and even makeup like mascara, contain cancer causing forever chemicals? The scientific name of this hidden poison is PAS. Right now, every single person in this room, including myself, contains a detectable amount of PAS in their blood.

In fact, a newborn baby before they take their very first breath, already carries them. The reason why we call PAS forever chemicals is for a very simple reason. These chemicals are extremely persistent in the environment and in our bodies. As a result, they accumulate over the years. Today, every single water supply on this planet contains PAS.

More than 200 million people are consuming PAS contaminated water. This is a global catastrophe. PAS exposure is directly linked to increased cancer risk, developmental delays, thyroid disorder, and the list of diseases goes on and on. On another note, this directly threatens our national ambition here in the UAE. The UEIE 2031 vision is built on a pillar of preventive care, which is stopping disease before it actually happens.

But how can we achieve this vision if the water contains a hidden poison? The best we could do today with PAS is to actually store them, trap them from water sources, store them, and then dump them back into the ground. However, this is not a true solution because the PAS molecules will still make their way into the water sources and reach us, the humans and the environment. My name is Safi Hashmi. I'm an assistant professor and a material scientist.

I'm the founder and CEO of Elsafia Pureek. We don't just trap PAS, we destroy them. Our endto-end solution is lightpure photo reactor technology. Unlike traditional treatment units that only trap PAS, our patent pending technology uses advanced photochemistry that breaks down 99.8% of these persistent pollutants into harmless substances without generating any secondary contaminants.

This precision approach is sustainable, scalable, and could be seamlessly integrated into water treatment units. The entire world is desperate for a true solution to PAS. The market has been severely underserved, focusing on extraction rather than destruction. This gap has created 115 billion dirham untapped market. We are excited to be the first movers in this domain and with only $3 million, we can turn this vision into reality.

Our business model is built for rapid scaleup. We aim to license light pure technology to municipalities and water treatment companies. We have the science, we have the plan, and we are ready for the scaleup. Let us work together to make forever a thing of the past and save the lives of 200 million people, the environment, and the entire planet. Thank you.

Um did you know that 40% of the irrigation water is wasted to the soil and that's equivalent to 600 million dirham per year? It's not only a wasted water, it's wasted opportunity, wasted resources and wasted sustainability. And the more important, it's wasted potential for our farmers. My name is Abdman Shah, the uh world champion in building technology and the founder of Draco smart system. And like many Emirates, I grew up understanding the value of every drop in our farm.

I will start with a very simple uh and short story. Uh one day in one quiet afternoon I was sitting together with my father in the farm and we were discussing several topics. One of the topic was how can we reduce the resources in our farm in terms of water and electricity and at the same time increase our productivity. It seems like impossible mathematics. But after I left him, he said to me, "Abdman, we have to save what God gives us."

It's a very simple sentence, but powerful. At that moment, it sparked a question in my mind. How can we reduce the resources, the waters, and electricity and at the same time increase the productivity? It's kind of impossible. After that we did a very deep research and the finding was that this challenge is not unique to our farm.

It's every farmer in the UAE facing the same challenge which is that 40% of the water that is disappearing into the soil due to the traditional irrigation it's wasting 600 million dham per year which is a huge amount of money. But the question is or the big challenge is how can the farmer save something they cannot see or measure or control. It's kind of impossible. Here at Draco smart system, we used our expertise in a smart home to convert uh traditional irrigation into a smart irrigation and smart farming where we integrate sensors, controllers and AI based technology into a very user-friendly dashboard where the farmer can see and monitor every single watt of electricity, every single drop of water and also this is the more important that the farmer will be aligned with the UA vision of 20 uh uh 2030 of sustainability. By implementing this system in the farm, the farmer will be able to save cost money, save resources, save sustainability and also moreover he will be aligned with the UAA vision of sustainability 2030 here at Draco smart system.

Uh wait, let me give you a fact. Did you know that in Abu Dhabi only we have more than 24,000 farm and between this 24,000 only 2,000 are certified as a sustainable farm and our vision in Draco is to double this number by 2030 to be aligned with the UAE vision of sustainability 2030 and I am here not only presenting a solution I am extending an invitation to the government sector and to the private sector and everyone who believes in our vision and believe in uh in sustainable agriculture to work with us, support us to meet this vision. And thank you very much. Hello everyone. Did you know that the UAE has the first mobile art studio?

Yes, it does. And it's called Canal's Art Studio. It's the first art studio on wheels. My name is Galiel Mansour and I'm an artist and the founder of Canaz Art Studio. I'm happy to to tell you today about Canaz.

My passion for art started when I was a young girl living in Leewa. So Liawa is a remote area that is 200 kilometers away from the capital of Abu Dhabi. The challenge was that I didn't have a lot of opportunities to develop my artistic skills. Okay. And this challenge became my mission.

So after moving to the to Abu Dhabi with my family, I developed my skills by earning a bachelor's degree in fine arts at Zed University and I took a master's in art education at the school of art institute of Chicago and today Canaz is there roaming all the different corners of the UAE having all the different programs of art, culture and creativity. So, let's talk about Canaz. Canals was found in 2024 and in less than a year we participated in more than 60 different locations across the UAE benefiting more than 40,000s participants from different members of the community and also targeting kids, youth, children, elders and even people of determination. The impact of canas is touched in every single experience for our participants. We believe that we deliver for them a very unique and creative platform to enhance the national identity while also spreading the creativity and also for our volunteers that are volunteering for canals from students across the UAE from schools and universities.

We we are trying to teach them how to deliver those programs to all the community members and at the same time to gaining more skills such as leadership skills also they can gain social skills and professional skills to be a very active members and creative leaders of our community. I'm so happy to tell you that can was invited in the hands-on conference in Liverpool recently and uh it was chosen as one of the best and the world's best practices for art education in museums and if that showed it would highlight that our national identity is a role model to be a as a global example for uh innovation and cre creativity. I am I'm telling you today to invest in can as well to invest in creativity and be uh to invest in the engine that fuels the national identity and the youth leadership also the economic diversification across the UAE. invest in canals and invest in in creativity. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, the pitches have now concluded. Can we give them a round of applause? Thank you. We will now ask the judges to cast their vote using the evaluation criteria available for the people's choice award. We will now give the audience two minutes to cast in your votes.

Make it count. Let's make sure everybody gets a chance to vote. People in the back. Remember that this is the only award that is decided entirely by the audience. So, let's make sure everybody votes.

Huh? Okay, thank you very much for casting in your votes. Just make couple of seconds for the votes just to lock in. And now the moment we've all been waiting for. To help present the awards, I would like to invite the following distinguished guests to the stage.

His Excellency Had Mazari, chairman of ADGM Academy, Mr. Ahmed Hini from CERT, Mr. Faris Msmar from Khalifa Fund, and Miss Hajal Lansari from Hub71. Please welcome on stage I would like to invite his excellency Maz to the stage and Miss Mosa to the stage. and Mr.

Abdullah from the Department of Government Enablement to the stage. And now for the awards for the people's choice award. The winner of the people's choice award is Dr. Safiel Hashmi presenting Sophia Pure Tech.

People's Choice Award voted on by the audience. This award celebrates the pitch that captures hearts and imagination through creativity, passion, and compelling storytelling. And now for the community champion award. Shah

Community Champion Award recognizes the individual whose pitch demonstrates a deep commitment to creating positive social impact and fostering meaningful connections within their community.

Mr. Said to the stage. And now for the final award, the pitch excellence. Champion Award presented by ADGM Academy celebrates an outstanding entrepreneurial vision and supported by hub 71 through ecosystem growth and mentorship alongside Khalifa funds incubation support and the winner is Dr. Sophia Hashmi presenting a Sophia Pure Tech

Pitch Excellence Award selected by our judges. This award honors the pitch that best combines clarity, confidence, innovation, and strategic insight. Winners may receive exclusive opportunities such as incubation support and other valuable prizes. Well done and congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you to our strategic partners and everybody on stage. Thank you. Thank you. We would like to thank our strategic partners for their contribution towards the enablement of our UAE national entrepreneurs.

A heartfelt thank you to each of our entrepreneurs for sharing your vision and your courage on this stage. And thank you to our audience for your engagement, energy, and support in celebrating Imirati innovation. Now to lead us to the next part of our program, please join me in welcoming back Fat Mal Mullah. Thank you.

Special thanks to all the participants, judges, and audience for making this section a success. We now enter one of the most heartfelt moments of today's program. A moment that reflects who we are as a nation and who we hope to become. This section highlights the values we stand for. Unity, shared purpose, and the belief that education is one of the strongest engines of national progress.

for Medina. for gift. Education is one of the most powerful tools we have. It turns potential into purpose. It creates innovators, leaders, and nation builders.

At ADGM Academy, we are humbled to have contributed to this journey. Empowering thousands of UAE nationals, providing world-class learning and mentorship, offering meaningful career pathways, and shaping a workforce ready to lead across finance, technology, entrepreneurship, and more. Every success story is a testament to the UAE's investment in its people, and today we see that investment come to life. To celebrate this growth, we would now like to invite two exceptional ADGM Academy graduates to briefly share how the academy shaped their journeys. Please welcome Alen Luis.

Your excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, asalam allayikum and a very good afternoon. I would like to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to the UAE's wise leadership whose vision, support and unwavering belief in the potential of Imiratis uh the Emirati youth continues to shape a nation where ambition becomes opportunity and opportunity becomes impact. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the department of government enable en enablement apologies for that and to the Abu Dhabi global market academy for the immense role they have played in developing national talent. Their programs open doors for Imiratis strengthening our capabilities and ensure we are prepared to contribute where our nation needs us most. My journey began in my second year of university where I established a startup with my team.

Working as an entrepreneur has given me many soft skills that was able to help me move forward in my career and given me an advantage when coming to communication and public speaking. I then pursued the private sector where I had the privilege of working in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions at KPMG Lower Gulf. Entering the private sector was one of one of the most important decisions of my career. It challenged me, shaped my skills, pushed me to compete, adapt and grow at an accelerated pace. The experience I gained from financial analysis to strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, taking part of youth circles, youth councils and youth leadership shaped my professional identity and gave me the confidence to take on larger capabilities.

And today I am honored that these experiences have brought me in the government sector where my work now contributes directly to the national priorities. At the Abu Dhabi investment office within the agri food growth and water abundance cluster or awa for short, I support innovative projects, novel foods and ingredients, traditional agriculture, supply chain management and water technology. all essential to the UAE's food and water security. Working in AWA has shown me how the UAE is not only preparing for the future, but actively building it through resilient supply chains, cutting edge technologies, and partnerships that strengthen our national capabilities. Through every step of my journey, one truth has stayed with me.

When an Imirati is empowered with knowledge, purpose and opportunity, he does not rise alone. He lifts his community, strengthens his country, and contributes to a future bigger than himself. To every young Imirati here, I want to say this. Your path may challenge you, but it will transform you. Be open to learning, embracing the private sector, all the experiences that is given from that private sector and build skills that will one day make you an asset to your nation.

The UAE has invested in us and now it is our responsibility to give that back to innovate and to lead with integrity. I am deeply proud to be a small part of our country's story and even prouder to contribute to the bright ambitious future being shaped by this remarkable nation. Finally, I would like to thank my family for standing by my side, my friends and colleagues for who never failed to empower me and above allah who has given me the opportunity, strength and paved the way. Thank you. Thank you, Ali.

Uh, we will now welcome our second graduate, Darin Khalifa. for imat. Foreimch. Fore! Foreign!

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forc CM and Fore woman member. I use diamond. Thank you to our two graduates for sharing your journeys with us. Your stories reflect the purpose of ADGM Academy, empowering talent, building confidence, and shaping the future of our nation. And now we continue this celebration of purpose with a moment that speaks to the heart just as deeply.

A moment of art, expression, and unity. To bring this moment to light, we are honored to welcome an exceptional Imirati artist, Hammed Shamsi, whose work beautifully captures our identity and imagination. Please join me in welcoming Hammed Deshansi to the stage. Asalamu alaikum everyone. Uh my name is Al Shamsi.

I'm an Emirati artist. Um my art focuses on uh presenting UAE culture through refined and contemporary uh approach. So for today we are going to um uh we are going to paint me and uh the graduates of uh ADGM Academy. So uh uh please enjoy the show and um uh by involving the graduates in this artwork, it will be a forever moment to remember and um and uh it will become a living reminder uh that progress always uh a shared uh a shared effort. With every stroke we draw, we honor the nation that shaped us.

We are the graduates of today and the leaders of tomorrow. We are bridging knowledge and building our nation. transforming our learning into service, our skills into leadership and our dreams into real impact for the UAE. As we place our marks on this canvas, we paint the story of a country that believes in its people, a country that invested in us so we could rise for it. Every graduate here carries a message that innovation is our responsibility and progress is our promise to the nation.

Our education is not just knowledge. It is a commitment to give back, to uplift our economy, and to carry the UAE forward with pride. Through education, research and hard work, we create ripples of innovation that touch every sector, every industry, every community. We are not just graduates, we are architects of impact. We stand here with gratitude to our leadership, to our families, to our nation that trusted us and today we give that trust back.

Our programs empowered us. Our mentors guided us and now we are ready to lead, to innovate, to serve. Together with academia, industry and government, we paint a nation powered by talent, strengthened by knowledge, and elevated by ambition. We, the graduates, are the living art of this nation. Turning knowledge into action and ambition into achievement.

This is our message. This is our promise. This is the story of our nation's future. Drawn by its people and carried by its graduates. Heat.

Heat. N. Hi. Oh, hey. Thank you, Hammed, for sharing your talent and vision with us today.

Your work truly brought this moment to life. What we have just witnessed is a reflection of the very spirit of this gathering. Today is about bridging knowledge and building the nation. And work has captured that essence. His talent reminds us that innovation and creativity are not just abstract ideas.

They are strokes that paint the future of our country. This event is a celebration of how knowledge, talent, and collaboration come together to drive impact. It it's it's about empowering UAE nationals, preparing leaders for tomorrow, and ensuring that every contribution strengthens Abu Dhabi's economy and society. The importance of this moment lies in recognizing that our graduates, our programs, and our partnerships are the foundations upon which the nation continues to thrive. We will now shift to the future, innovation, applied research, and global collaboration.

ADGM Academy continues to be a pioneer in applied research and this week marks an important milestone with the launch of the ADGMA tech center, a firstofits-kind multis- sector platform that reinforces Abu Dhabi's position as a global benchmark for research-driven innovation. The tech center will serve as the engine of a new innovation ecosystem bringing together academia, policy makers, regulators and industry leaders in a living lab where knowledge, regulation and technology evolve together through specialized programs, hackathons and research fellowships across AI, blockchain, cyber security, investment tech, and energy tech. It will help translate discovery into practice and prepare the workforce of the future. Innovation is about excellence and partnerships. Please turn your attention to the screen for a special video.

A video from Phipe AON.

Your highness, excellencies, distinguished guest, industry leaders, and friends. It is a great honor to join you even though virtually. Warmest congratulations to ADGM and the Abu Dhabi Finance Week for convening the world's financial leaders to engineer the capital network of the future. As a Nobel laureate in economic science, I have spent my career exploring the forces that shape markets and human progress. Today I am honored to witness a powerful example of those forces in action.

The strategic partnership between ADGM Academy and INSEAD. It aligns deeply with the United Arab Emirates vision to build a diversified knowledge based economy, one that balances growth with responsibility. This collaboration builds on nearly two decades of shared commitment between INSAD and ADC, a relationship advancing executive education across the region. I wish to thank his highness she khaled bin Muhammad bin Zed, his excellency rammed al Mazi, chairman of ADGM Academy and the leadership of Abu Dhabi for their steadfast commitment to education innovation. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this journey, one that is shaping a future defined by knowledge, inclusion and innovation.

Thank you, Professor Agyong, for your inspiring message. Today marks another proud milestone, one about executive education. For this I would like to call on stage our chairman his excellency Ahmed Mazuri, our CEO Mansour Jaffer with INSEAD chair of the board Christine Scogan Londo dean of INSEAD and Mark Mortensson associate dean of INSEAD Middle East campus. ADGM Academy and INSEAD are proud to enter a strategic partnership dedicated to advancing innovation and developing the next generation of Emirati leaders. As part of this collaboration, we would like like to announce 10 executive education scholarships for UAE nationals alongside the launch of a new joint family business program together with INSEAD.

Together we are supporting our next generation of innovators and leaders. Thank you your excellencies and distinguished guests. Ladies and gentlemen, today's program reflects the shared commitment of ADGM Academy and our partners to advance and elevate the national workforce. Together, we are shaping a future built on knowledge, purpose, and unity. We now move into a special moment, a series of commitments that express our collective visions for the future.

Our first commitment focuses on driving the UAE's employability agenda, championing skills, careers, and workforce readiness for the future. May I please invite the representatives of this pledge to join us on stage ADGM Academy, EIF, Khalifa, Fund, MAN, AML to the stage. to proceed. If you can please place your hand on the screen. Yeah, you can place your hand on the screen and face the audience.

You can uh place your hand on the screen under your logos. Okay. Please face forward. Thank you so much. Thank you to our esteemed representatives for taking part in this commitment.

May I kindly ask you come together for a group photo. And I would like to now invite our strategic partners DGE and NAFIS to join us on stage for a photo. Sorry. You may now return to your seats. I would like to request that our chairman to remain on stage.

Chairman, if you can please remain on stage. Our next commitment strengthens Abu Dhabi's position at the capital of capital. Supported by leading organizations and witnessed by partners standing alongside them. This commitment reinforces our dedication to building a globally competitive talent-driven ecosystem. May I please invite ADGM Academy, ADGM, Abu Dhabi Chamber, AIA, Adio, ADRA and AGT to pledge.

May I please invite to the stage ADGM, Abu Dhabi Chamber, AIA, Audio, Adra, and AG AGT. Please place your hand on the screen and face the audience. Thank you to our representatives for honoring this pledge. If you can come together for a group photo.

Yeah. Let's go. Our final commitment focuses on innovation, advancing applied research, technology, and transformative solution. This moment highlights our belief that innovation is not only essential for progress, but foundational to shaping the future. May I now invite ATI Foundation, Freedom Management, Pigem, and TDE to join us on stage.

Please place your hand on the screen and face the audience. If you can please come together for a group photo. Can I please invite to the stage Mansour Jaffer and our and and and Thank you so much. We extend our sincere appreciation to all representatives for your presence and participation. We now turn to one of the most critical conversations shaping the future of our industry.

The role of artificial intelligence in finance. AI is transforming the global financial landscape from investment strategies and risk management to regulatory frameworks and workforce skills. It is redefining how institutions operate, how policies are shaped, and how talent is prepared for the challenges of tomorrow. To explore these opportunities and challenges, ADGM Academy is proud to present our panel, AI and the future of finance, shaping knowledge, policy, and innovation. Guiding the discussion as a moderator is Armagan Ahmed, senior manager of strategy and performance management at ADGM Academy.

Joining him are distinguished speakers, Marwan Maheri, general manager of the Emirates Institute of Finance. bringing insights on how AI is reshaping financial education and instit in instit in institutional resilience. Julian Yorker, associate dean for executive education at Colombia Business School, offering a global perspective on h how AI is influencing leadership, innovation, and executive learning. Together, this panel will examine how AI can be harnessed to drive sustainable growth, enhance financial resilience, and empower the next generation of professionals. Please join me in welcoming our moderator and speakers to the stage.

Everyone, good afternoon and welcome. Uh AI is obviously quite topical and I'm sure you all have spent all of today and you'll spend probably another three days hearing about AI but it's good to bring the conversation to people on the ground and in our case people you know who are really involved in the day-to-day of implementing AI in terms of education in terms of learning. So I'm very pleased to sort of have two of senior executives who are at the forefront of this fight. Let me first quickly just lay the scene for what motivated this panel. There's a McKenzie report from 2025 which talks about AI in organizations and that mentions that 88% of organizations today are using AI and yet only 6% of them are actually seeing any impact in terms of P&L or other real impact.

So it's still very early days and I think human talent education is a critical piece of it. So I'm hoping you guys through your experience can help us figure this out. Thank you. And just to give a quick introduction, Julian is the associate dean for Columbia Business School. He brings 15 years of experience not just from Colombia but from other top business schools including LBS and INSEAD.

U Marwan is the general manager of EIF. What I love about his background here is that not only has he been brings the EIF/ regulators perspective, but he spent 15 or almost two decades in the industry in the financial services sector working at two of UAE's largest banks. So he really bring that practitioner's eye. So he has got a bird's eye view of view of what's happening on the ground as well. So hoping we can pick your brain on that.

My pleasure.

Thank you. So maybe just to sort of lay the groundwork, Julian, you work with executives from some of the biggest organizations and you're sort of involved in this fight to sort of implement AI. I want to understand, you know, what are you seeing in terms of what are these organizations that are actually capturing AI? What are they doing different? What is what are they getting right?

Talk to me a little bit more about that.

Sure. Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me here today. Um so as you said I work with at at CBS with global organization from pretty much anywhere in the world with different industries uh and obviously a lot of banking and financial sectors and what we've seen this company coming to us and their biggest challenge and how they thrive is they really think about AI as a engine for change not only in terms of um processes but also people and what they're trying to do as much as possible is to bring together these two elements which makes not only just looking at AI as a way to to adapt some of the processes but really to think about how to reinvent themsel, how to reskill people and how to make sure that they put AI at the heart of the strategy and their perspective and this is how kind of they bring all that together and this is how we kind of come together as a partner to help them grow the capacity human capital and strategic perspective on AI. Just to sort of bring it in terms of real examples, have you seen anything different in terms of executive courses you do over the last 18 months in terms of these AI tools? Have you how have you integrated them into this?

Yeah, absolutely. So, one of the biggest uh different we've seen is one of our programs around business of AI that brings together not only the literature of what is AI and we know that AI changes very fast every day, but really how we um change their perspective on on thinking differently, right? So we work with clients that for which we deliver programs almost every other week now to ensure that every space in their capital is touch whether it's finance whether it's um technology personal we really work with them to bringing that together so that's a big difference

thank you Marvan maybe bringing the question to you and you know if you can bring the UAE perspective so Julian shared his experiences can you talk to me a little bit more about what are you seeing in terms in terms of UAE regal banks regulator what are you seeing in terms of the trends early on

so when it comes to this sector I believe there is um a certain maturity level in terms of dealing with AI and we've moved beyond the testing and the PC phase into an actual commercialization of AI today we've got uh the most profitable banks in the region one of the and the largest banks in the region are based in the UAE and the reason behind behind it is because of the early investment in AI and mainly of commercializing AI so that it's it sits at the core of the bank rather than just in the testing phase behind it. And because we've got a central bank that is open for innovation and built a framework and an ecosystem for the innovation to strive is is the change the game changer having in mind that regulators globally usually uh uh try to uh stop or reduce the innovation in industries.

Okay. Yeah. just to sort of follow on that right you've mentioned that UAE banks have been at the forefront and they've already invested quite a bit but maybe could you talk to me a little bit more about the human capital element of it because that's where most organizations globally are still struggling that these tools are still very new some of them are blocked by these organizations and even when you're seeing it's very much that classic case of people using AI to write emails so how are you thinking about that especially given that EIF has this emiratization perspective pledge and then you have to do all these foundational training and do CFA a CCA all these programs. So, so of course amortization is the core for Emirates Institute of Finance and the way that we are trying to develop is we want to bring emirates that are AI native at one level but also financial professionals that understand the core, understand credit and risk, understand treasury products, understand compliance and audit but at the same time also they are AI native and they're able to uh not just work with AI but I believe the AI knowledge is built on three levels the first one is just basic use of AI and then the second level is to build models and build AI technology that's going to help me in my work and the third level is how do I govern AI so those three levels are goes in line with the basic banking foundational skills and financial skills and we we have we carry it in two streams. We start building the basics and then we overlay a layer of AI on top of it.

One more thing for you before we move back to Julian, but do you see some sort of risk or something that you know the demand for talent will decrease given how much work these technologies could potentially do? So, how are you seeing that trend play out?

From my perspective, AI is not going to take uh jobs. It's going to take jobs for the ones who really don't work with AI, but if you work with AI, it's going to enhance your capabilities and your skill set. So, I'm not worried about really a big impact on terms of reduction of jobs. But what's going to happen is my efficiency and my uh delivery of my KPIs would be much faster and stronger with the utilization of AI.

Thank you, Julian. back to you sort of again you work with global business executives and in these early day of these executive courses you know and these tend to be short one to four weeks how are you balancing this now need to sort of offer this technical training on AI skills and yet the historical which is mostly executive education business judgment so what's that balance now for these kind of trainings what are you seeing in the early days

I mean I think it's really related to what you said about the use of AI so if you think about three years ago when it was launched was really about what's going to happen right and people were craving for the technicity of what is AI so the coding they wanted to understand what is behind everything of that and and I think in three years we have evolved completely from moving to being very technical to embedding AI within the job as you just mentioned actually which is really to to build your judgment and your critical thinking when it comes to how do I use the AI to go beyond what I'm doing at the moment and to leverage some risks so for instance in the banking industry AI is used to enhance the capacity of of risks management for instance that didn't exist before. So how we did it in our course is that we really adapted the level at which people are trained on AI today and their understanding to move from what is AI to how do I embed AI within my work and how I take it further as you mentioned and embed it within the strategy of the work. So a lot what we do is not about giving an answer about what AI can do but really helping executive to ask the right questions and to look at their business and perspective and saying okay how AI is going to bring value into my business and into my um people and that is a big shift that we've done so a lot less technical and we still deliver technical trainings for entry job for instance to your point to making sure that they are trained around AI but as we grow and as we look at execut ative with highest level of seniority is no longer about AI per se. It's more about changing your thinking and how you drive business in a very fast changing environment because what was true yesterday might not be true tomorrow. And you can and you need to have this capacity of changing your mind and flexibility, agility, critical thinking to making sure that if a new technology come tomorrow, you're already ready to adapt and to thrive through it.

to this point of adaptability maybe then if you could add a bit more color we've obviously had very interesting five years since co where education itself has been changed disrupted with the online

then sort of some early evidence that that doesn't work but now with AI you can have these personalized bots and all this

could you talk to me a bit more about how you see the future of education with these personalized potential tutors for everyone what are you guys seeing how are you implementing it and how do you see it in five years

yeah so honestly I mean as you know education move slowly right it's it's we have a lot of brains and it takes a time for us to adjust but the way we have implemented AI within our job to your point so we do have online training and that's made for more masses right so people that can access this content on demand whenever they want however they want and so AI has given us the ability to provide them a lot of service and coaching element to making sure that while they are studying there is a a friend a teacher a boss where however you want to call it that we implement within our program to ensure that they can well answer and ask questions whenever they want. So that's was one and recently in our MBA and in our uh executive programs we've created a new app called Casey and it's an app that helps um students to build a case actually. So we have cases and instead of working on your own on your own paper you have a a partner that you can that going to help you to get to the bottom of it without any other activities just based on what the case is the environment in which it sits and becoming a lot more interactive. So there was a support that we added in our curriculum to making sure that we do leverage AI and we can experience and and the participant can experience something different when it comes to learning.

Very interesting. I'll follow up with you on Casey after this. Mvan back to you. Thank you Morvan. In your case I'm particularly interested given your unique relationship with the central bank and your own experience having worked in the financial services sector.

How do you see regulation at this stage? How is that evolving? How is that is that a hindrance right now? I know but what do you think is the role of regulation particularly some with such a nent yet revolutionary technology?

Absolutely. Um I believe that it's it's going to be a a um a a a really a strategy change in terms of how do regulators going to move out of being the policemen into building an ecosystem into providing capabilities and enablement of the technology but of course with the right supervision. I am 100% believer that AI is needed in in finance but that AI needs to be governed very well needs to be uh supervised and made sure that it transits engines uh without really uh you know making sure that the confidence of the uh users are are are high making sure that the the clients are protected and the money of of the people that are investing are also protected. So AI is needed but that AI needs to be governed, needs to be supervised and well managed and u what I see which is makes the UAE different that our central bank has already laid down the plan has already even enabled and participated with the private sector when it comes to open finance when it comes to instant payments uh tokenized money all of that the central bank has already provided a platform has issued many regulations ations around it and created this area of innovation and collaboration and I think that's the future for regulators globally where instead of just being as the policemen or supervisors or you know regulators to become more of enablers of the industry and technology and build this uh collaboration with all the participants in this whole finance ecosystem.

Thank you. That's one thing I've noticed in my time here that the regulators tend to be very forward-looking and they're generally among some of the best in terms of following trends and sort of enabling technologies.

It's it makes a big difference compared globally.

So maybe again I know we're short on time. One last one for both of you and more of a quickfire 30 second. You know people ask you to do the what do you say AGI to come. I think I'll ask a different version of that question. Let's say in three years by Abu Dhabi finance week 2028 how do you expect AI to have changed education in finance or AI to have changed our world in banking and finance in 3 years.

So initially we don't have to worry whether AGI is coming or not. It is coming but we have to think what are we going to do after the day of AGI that's you know I think there is a lot of work around that even globally. And the second thing when it comes to learning I think there will no longer be generic uh training or courses or learning. I think with AI we're gonna move into a more bespoke tailorm made personalized uh pathways let's say that will goes hand on hand inhand with your career as a banker or in the finance world and backed by a framework or a competency framework that is going to be which I know in the UAE will be the highest standard you

I mean I I completely agree with you and I think one of the sector that has been the most impacted did had been the banking and the financial sector when when AI started right and they have adapted the most I think when you think about the future it is hard to tell honestly because in in three years AI has changed so much and now we're talking about computing uh quantum we're talking about robotic we're talking about and ethics we're talking about governance and every single part of the world is kind of trying to understand what means governance enabling being the policeman like in Europe for instance or business friendly as we have here so I think there going to be a lot of opportunities for us to learn very differently and to adapt to the workforce and to just keep on learning. I think the the the key pieces here is it's it's going to change. We know it's going to change and how you adapt is your biggest strengths in the future.

Thank you. Before we conclude sort of I wanted to obviously thank our panelists, thank all of you for staying here. But I do want to say a couple of things about the entities we're seeing here. So EIF for those who are in UAE is probably as famous as Colombia. Anybody who's lived in UAE is known EIF has been at the forefront of financial services education.

We have a very symbiotic relationship with them. I think if ADGM has any success today, that's really due to EIF and we're sort of proud to be their partners, their co-workers. So I'm really happy to have them. Colombia, as I said, itself needs no education in New York. They're a powerhouse of finance.

But what we're particularly pleased on is they're branching their wings and this is the first step in a which we hope will be a long and fruitful partnership. I'm pleased to sort of announce that you know we're launching a first of its kind executive education certificate next year on wealth management. Uh and again there will be more details on this on the AGMA website on our LinkedIn page and all that. But yeah, we're very pleased to have them and we're pleased to have such sort of honorable guests.

Thank you. Our pleasure. Thank you.