GCC Tech Talks

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, we sit down with Tugba Halici Soner, a mathematician turned CTO, to discuss the realities of scaling enterprise technology and AI.

We explore the challenges of escaping monolithic legacy systems, managing the unpredictable risks of Large Language Models (LLMs), and why AI adoption is failing in so many enterprises.

Now leading technology strategy in the precious metals industry, Tugba shares why getting AI into the business is only half the battle, and how poorly managed LLMs can quickly erode business trust.

🔗 CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST:Tugba Halici Soner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tugbahalici/🎧 SUBSCRIBE TO GCC TECH TALKS:Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to catch new episodes! Available on YouTube, LinkedIn, and major podcast platforms.#GCCTechTalks #EnterpriseAI #TechLeadership #DataScience #CTO #ArtificialIntelligence #DubaiTech #MachineLearning #LLM

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, Mumtaz Kinston Pearson, Senior In-House Legal Counsel, joins Tom Stroud and Sye Rahman to explore the evolving intersection of law, intellectual property, and product development in the AI era. From AI copyright ownership and landmark legal cases like DABUS to enterprise vs. personal licensing, cross-border privacy regulations, and why legal must be integrated early in product design, Mumtaz shares key insights from her career across big law, blue-chip corporations, and fast-paced tech environments.

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, Saima Ali, Director of Data, AI & Analytics at OSN, joins Tom Stroud and Sye Rahman to explore what it really takes to build successful data teams in the AI era. From storytelling with data and dashboard design to AI governance, human-in-the-loop decision making, and why business context matters more than technical skills alone, Saima shares lessons from her journey across healthcare, aviation, fintech, mobility, and media.Chapters00:24 – Intro: AI, analytics & data leadership in the GCC01:19 – Meet Saima Ali: 17 years across five industries02:20 – Growing up in Toronto and discovering a passion for data04:04 – Why storytelling matters more than SQL (at first)06:15 – What makes dashboards people actually use09:04 – The biggest mistakes teams make when building dashboards11:20 – AI agents, analytics and why "human-in-the-loop" matters15:44 – Where AI actually delivers value (and where it doesn't)17:57 – Why full AI automation is still risky for businesses20:18 – AI governance, semantic layers and preventing hallucinations24:05 – Lessons from healthcare: why context matters in AI models26:49 – A practical framework for adopting AI in organisations29:16 – Why AI won't replace great data professionals32:33 – Career lessons from Careem and leading high-performing teams35:45 – Learning through failure and building resilience as a leader37:16 – How to learn a new business through its product and customers44:35 – The rise of the "spanner employee" and future-proofing your career46:15 – Saima's favourite tools: Claude, Tableau & SQL50:03 – Wrap-up

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, Don O’Shaughnessy joins Tom Stroud and Sye Rahman to break down AI governance in the GCC: privacy, data quality, councils/committees, sovereignty, and why most “AI” programmes stall without foundations.

Our guest:Don O'Shaughnessy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-o-shaughnessy-b19676a7/

Our speakers: Tom Stroud - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-stroud2/Syedor Rahman - https://www.linkedin.com/in/syedor/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gcc-tech-talks-podcast

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5BbwU8JQ6DW7AA7e0Ug6DI

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gcc-tech-talks/id1862755504

Website: https://7dxperts.com/podcast

Welcome to our Summer Edition podcast series   - fresh conversations, new perspectives, and more practical insights from leaders across the region.

What’s in this episode?

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, ⁠Tom Stroud⁠ and ⁠Sye Rahman⁠ sit down with Raphaël Peyret — a seasoned Chief Product Officer, former Google product leader, startup operator, and fractional product advisor now based in Dubai.

Rafael shares what product leadership really means in fast-moving companies: knowing what to build, why to build it, when to stop, and how to align technology, sales, customers, leadership, legal, governance, and market reality around one direction.

We cover:
• What he learned about product management at Google
• Why many startups build too fast in the wrong direction
• The difference between product owner, product manager, CTO, and CPO
• Why GCC product maturity is still developing — and what the region can learn from Singapore
• Why founders should ask for help earlier, before the product goes too far
• What makes a strong product leader: relationship skills, uncertainty, and alignment
• How AI is changing discovery, execution, marketing, and product teams
• Rafael’s favourite tools

Join us to discuss product management, startup maturity, the role of the Chief Product Officer, and how AI is changing the way product teams work.

What’s in this episode?

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, ⁠Tom Stroud⁠ and ⁠Sye Rahman⁠ sit down with Taiyab Ghafoor — a people-first operator with a background spanning the UK and the Gulf, from retail and leadership roles to now running an e-commerce toys startup as COO.

This one is a deep dive into operational leadership, culture, and what it really takes to build teams that thrive plus where AI is already making a real difference (including recruitment and customer experience).

We cover:

• Why “a leader’s job is to make your people better”
• Culture vs performance and why toxic environments kill outcomes
• Hiring smart people (and letting them tell you what to do)
• Practical AI use cases that actually work: recruitment scoring + faster shortlisting
• Data visibility in sales businesses: dashboards over “email reporting”
• UAE e-commerce realities: trust, convenience, delivery, and reducing friction
• What leaders should focus on next: adoption culture, transparency, and change readiness

Join us to listen about operational leadership through a retail lens: building culture, developing people, using data properly, and where AI is already delivering value (especially in hiring).

Check out what Taiyab is building at Marah Kids.

What’s in this episode?

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, ⁠Tom Stroud⁠ and ⁠Sye Rahman chat with Leina Essakalli — a data scientist and AI transformation leader with a rare background spanning biomedical engineering , bioinformatics at Harvard, and scaling AI across healthcare in the UAE.

Leina shares what it really takes to make AI work in high-stakes environments: data quality, trust, regulation, and starting from business pain instead of vendor buzzwords.

We cover:
• Why data work is mostly cleaning + standardisation (especially in healthcare)
• What it takes to meet the bar for regulated environments (and why it matters)
• How the UAE is investing in genomics and preventative health at scale
• A practical framework for AI use cases: where you lose money, where you can gain, and how to build the business case
• When you don’t need AI (and it’s just automation)

Join us to listen to Leina Essakalli's  journey and a practical approach to deploying AI responsibly at scale in the UAE.

What’s in this episode?

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, Tom Stroud and Sye Rahman sit down with Faisal Ali, an Emirati Group CIO with a career spanning IBM/Microsoft, government, and the private sector.

We talk about how tech leadership has evolved from the early days of infrastructure (yes, physical firewalls and dot-matrix printers) to today’s reality: AI moving at a pace that punishes slow decisions. Faisal shares practical leadership principles, how to introduce AI responsibly, and one unforgettable “go-live” story where a patch nearly derailed a major launch.

We cover:
• The CIO journey: tech-first roots, infrastructure, and leading transformation

• Why decision cycles of “weeks” don’t work in the AI era
• “Eat your own dog food”: adopt internally before scaling across the business
• AI ROI reality: why you don’t jump from 0 → 50x (and how to build momentum)

• “Automation without oversight is negligence” — governance and accountability
• A war story: Patch Tuesday, a broken release, and the fastest contingency plan ever
• Advice for the next generation: passion, risk-taking, and owning mistakes

This episode is a discussion about leading in the AI era - decision speed, responsible automation, real ROI expectations, and hard-earned project lessons.

What’s in this episode?

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, Tom Stroud and Sye Rahman are joined by  Omar Abdellaoui to unpack the real startup lessons founders learn the hard way  from trust and validation to building an MVP that doesn’t become an expensive distraction.

Omar shares his journey (startup → corporate → building in Dubai) and what he’s learned about launching in the UAE/GCC ecosystem: how to test demand early, avoid overbuilding, and find the right people to execute.

We cover:

• Why startups often fail on execution, trust, and validation not the idea

• The biggest risks for non-technical founders (and how to de-risk delivery)

• How to validate demand before you build (including real market feedback)

• Why MVPs should be simple, testable, and outcome-led

• Lessons on hiring/working with developers vs agencies

• How Dubai’s events and ecosystem can help you find the right partners

• What to do when momentum drops and how to keep moving without burning cash

If you’re building in the UAE/GCC (or thinking about it), this episode is a practical guide to avoiding common founder mistakes and building the right MVP at the right time.

In this episode of GCC Tech Talks, Tom Stroud and Sye Rahman sit down with Sumit Srivastava, a transformation leader who’s spent decades across Silicon Valley, Canada, and beyond  and recently returned home to Dubai.

We unpack the GCC’s pace of execution, the AI data center boom (and whether some of it becomes “dead investment”), and the real tension leaders face between speed, governance, and ROI.

We cover:

• Why the UAE is accelerating from vision to execution

• Data centers: compute vs storage, ROI, sustainability, and demand

• The “risk of inaction” (and why many organisations under-model it)

• Why innovation must be a living system, not a one-off project

• How to deliver value in small, measurable steps

• Omnichannel, data-driven customer journeys, and AI-powered personalisation

• What’s next: conversational commerce, agents, and customer-owned data

Listen to the full episode about debate about the GCC’s big bet on AI infrastructure, and the hard trade-offs leaders face between innovation speed, governance, and ROI.