Ahead of the Ai Everything conference in Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi-based AI company Presight hosted its Future Forum, focusing on moving artificial intelligence technologies from proof-of-concept into commercial operation. Presight Chief Executive Thomas Pramotedham told Khaleej Times that the central hurdle in enterprise AI is not technical execution, but driving institutional adoption and managing organizational change.
To bridge the gap between pilot projects and market deployment, Presight announced the launch of FutureSight, an initiative designed to advance AI technologies from discovery to capital funding and enterprise-scale procurement. Presight reported receiving 376 applications across 62 countries for the forum, selecting 12 companies spanning healthcare deterioration monitoring, satellite methane tracking, drone infrastructure inspection, and enterprise AI risk management.
Pramotedham highlighted that the selection favored companies possessing verifiable customer engagement, paying users, and integration capabilities rather than early-stage hype. The commercialization bottleneck was underscored by external research cited in the report: a McKinsey study found that 89 percent of surveyed companies regularly employ AI in at least one business function, but only 6 percent achieve meaningful financial gains. Deloitte research similarly noted that only 25 percent of firms have scaled at least 40 percent of their pilot projects into live production.
Addressing the regional commercial landscape, Pramotedham acknowledged that the UAE does not represent a domestic consumer market on the scale of China, the United States, or India. However, he argued that the country functions as an operational catalyst and springboard for commercial deployment across the GCC, Central Asia, and other emerging international markets.
Sources
- Khaleej Times · 2026-10-06
