Rania Wehbi, IBM Business Unit Director at Gulf Business Machines (GBM), explains that the company is all set to showcase ‘Explore a More Intelligent Future,’ highlighting AI-driven automation, hybrid cloud, and cybersecurity innovations that empower governments and enterprises in the Middle East.”
What are GBM’s key themes or innovations being showcased at GITEX 2025, and how do they align with regional digital transformation goals?
At GITEX 2025, our focus is on AI-driven solutions, hybrid cloud adoption, and accelerating the digital economy — all underpinned by security, sovereignty, and governance. Under our theme “Explore a More Intelligent Future”, we showcase how governments and enterprises can scale securely and intelligently, modernize and automate seamlessly, and accelerate growth, to align with the region’s vision of having a digitally sovereign, AI-enabled, and diversified economy built for resilience and sustainable growth.
How is GBM leveraging AI, cybersecurity, and cloud technologies to address the evolving needs of government and enterprise clients in the GCC?
At GBM, we position automation powered by agentic AI as the anchor for accelerating business outcomes. Agentic AI goes beyond insights to take autonomous, context-aware actions, enabling organizations to optimize operations, enhance decision-making, and deliver better services at scale. These capabilities are underpinned by our hybrid cloud strategy, which provides the flexibility to integrate on-premise and cloud environments while ensuring sovereignty, compliance, and security. It also allows organizations to monitor, respond, and act seamlessly across their digital ecosystems.
Together, agentic AI, automation, and hybrid cloud empower enterprises and governments to build the resilient, AI-enabled, and digitally sovereign economies envisioned across the region.
Can you share insights into any strategic partnerships or product launches GBM is announcing during GITEX this year?
This year at GITEX, GBM’s participation alongside the IBM booth reinforces our commitment to driving digital transformation in the Middle East. Our long-standing partnerships with global technology leaders, including IBM, Cisco, and VMware, demonstrate our ability to deliver world-class technologies tailored to local business needs. These alliances enable GBM to introduce innovative products, such as AI-driven analytics platforms, hybrid cloud architectures, and advanced cybersecurity frameworks, to the region, while solidifying GBM’s role as a trusted partner in the Middle East’s digital transformation.
What role does GITEX play in GBM’s broader go-to-market strategy across the Middle East, especially in high-growth sectors like finance, energy, and smart cities?
Exhibiting at GITEX further strengthens our go-to-market strategy, providing a platform to demonstrate how our portfolio of AI, automation, cybersecurity, and hybrid cloud solutions directly addresses the transformation priorities of high-growth sectors, including finance, energy, and smart cities. It allows us to showcase tangible use cases – from intelligent automation to secure hybrid cloud, and AI-powered platforms – in line with national and regional digital agendas.
Beyond technology, GITEX enables us to engage directly with decision-makers and ecosystems, building partnerships that translate innovation into measurable outcomes. It reinforces GBM’s role not just as a technology provider, but as a trusted partner helping clients accelerate growth, ensure resilience, and achieve digital sovereignty in critical industries across the Middle East.
How is GBM investing in talent development and ecosystem collaboration to ensure long-term innovation and regional tech leadership?
Our in-depth local expertise, spanning over 35 years in the market, combined with global technology standards, enables us to deliver solutions that address the region’s complex business challenges. Technology leadership depends on nurturing talent and fostering collaboration across the technology ecosystem. We invest in advanced training programs, certifications, and mentorship initiatives to upskill our workforce and enhance technical expertise. GBM also collaborates with leading academic institutions and industry partners to help build a robust talent pipeline aligned with market needs. These efforts ensure that we continue to deliver transformative technologies while empowering the region’s workforce to meet evolving digital challenges and remain competitive on the global technology stage.
How is GBM driving greater inclusion and advancement for women in tech, and what steps should the IT industry take to foster more meaningful participation and leadership opportunities for women?
GBM is committed to empowering women in tech through programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. We actively recruit, mentor, and support women, fostering an inclusive workplace culture that enables them to thrive. Our leadership initiatives focus on developing women leaders through skill-building workshops, networking opportunities, and career advancement programs.
To close the gender gap in the tech industry, it must take decisive action. Despite progress, women remain underrepresented, particularly in leadership and decision-making roles, with unconscious bias continuing to influence hiring and promotion. To drive real change, we must implement measurable policies, such as gender diversity targets in leadership and pay equity audits, to ensure accountability in closing the gender gap. Additionally, organizations must actively challenge biases by adopting blind recruitment processes and providing unconscious bias training for hiring managers. True inclusion is achieved when women are equally represented in leadership, paid fairly, and empowered to succeed in all industries.
