Joining me now is Dr. Jihan Zahran, Chief AI and External Affairs Officer at Gulf Data International and CEO of Via International Consultancy, with more than two decades of experience across technology, education, and enterprise transformation. Dr. Jihan, welcome to Fintech TV.
Thank you for having me today.
You sit inside a systems integrator deploying enterprise AI across the UAE and Egypt. Where is money actually being made with AI in the region today — and where are companies spending without anything to show for it?
The region is experiencing a massive wave of value creation driven by high-impact, practical AI application. The real returns are coming from hyper-localised digital transformation. Wasted spend is quickly shifting as companies learn to target high-yield, measurable opportunities. What we focus on is what I would call mathematical optimisation — using AI to reduce costs, reduce manpower, and compress timelines. A process that used to take 30 days can be done in two. That is where the ROI comes from. Any enterprise company needs to look at how AI can reduce cost first. The ROI follows naturally from that calculation.
Lloyd's data shows that access to AI tools has surged to nearly 60% of workers, but most pilots never reach production. When a client comes to GDI, what separates the projects that generate measurable returns from the ones that stall?
The first thing we do is a thorough analysis of the client's operations and vision. We are a vendor — we are not subscribing to a generic AI tool and handing it over. Our team invents an AI application that is translated directly into the client's specific objectives. Sometimes the client does not know exactly what they need — they come with a minimum requirement: reduce this cost, cut the manpower here, speed up this process. We take that starting point and build from it. The key is always starting from the operational problem, not from the technology.
Egypt's new AI governance framework classifies AI into four risk tiers and singles out finance and banking as priority sectors. For an investor holding Egyptian bank or fintech stocks — is that framework a compliance cost that squeezes margins or a moat that rewards institutions that get certified first?
Egypt's governance framework is a major catalyst for long-term growth and institutional trust. It gives forward-thinking financial institutions a green light to innovate with confidence. Clear, predictable rules are exactly what global investors want to see — de-risked capital entry and positioning, with certified local players accelerating investment. This framework is not a speed bump. It is the highway. It gives institutions the certainty they need to scale AI with confidence and build a massive competitive advantage on the global stage.
The framework champions what it calls frugal AI — smaller models, lower compute, lower cost. Could that constraint actually give Egyptian companies a better return on AI capital than global players spending billions on the largest models?
That is Egypt's secret weapon. Agile, highly specialised models allow local businesses to achieve results at a fraction of the cost. Small language models trained on rich local data deliver incredible speed and lower cost — and that is capital efficiency as a superpower. What I am witnessing in Egypt right now is something that is genuinely transformative. I do not need to overstate it — it is really happening. And it makes me optimistic that Egypt is becoming a genuinely fertile ground for investing in the most advanced technology in the world. We are expecting a breakthrough soon.
Are we expecting that soon?
We are expecting that.
On that note, thank you very much. It has been amazing having you with us today on Fintech TV. Dr. Jihan, thank you very much.
Pleasure. Any time. Thanks.
