Hub71 and e& enterprise, part of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), have launched the region's first AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE) in Abu Dhabi. The AI CoE will provide a platform for AI solutions to be built and scaled from Abu Dhabi. By offering resources and expertise, the center is said to transform the future of AI, support a thriving innovation ecosystem, foster local talent, and boost the country's socio-economic growth. The partnership was signed at Hub71's headquarters in Abu Dhabi by Badr Al-Olama, acting chief executive officer of Hub71, and Salvador Anglada, chief executive officer of e& enterprise. Al-Olama said: "The region's first AI Center of Excellence at Hub71 will provide a robust ecosystem for innovative technology ideas to grow and scale, and will allow startups to benefit from Hub71's community, programmes and knowledge sharing platforms." Today, we signed an agreement with #eandEnterprise to develop #AI by launching the first Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence in the region to create a smarter & safer sustainable world through the co-creation of industry-specific and use case-driven (Al) solutions.

It is important to note that there are several functional and operational models that enterprises are adapting in regard to CoE. The change management model focuses on emphasizing the prospective innovation that artificial intelligence can provide for business stakeholders in the organization. Central to this model is education and training of executives and business units. In addition to change management, the Sandbox approach is another central model, in which the CoE acts as the company's hub of innovation and R&D. This model emphasizes proofs of concepts and different emerging technologies.

With a focus on building scalable capabilities for generating, operationalising, and measuring data-driven insights for their clients, ZS has a strong advanced data science group within their Business Consulting function. The team focuses on integrating transformative AI-enabled solutions and data products across multiple industries such as healthcare, life sciences, telecommunication, high tech, and retail. As the company leverages deep industry expertise and leading-edge analytics to create solutions that work in real life, the data science team plays a vital role in driving these functions. From foundational research in deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), optimisation, and operational research -- the advanced data science team at ZS works across various solutions. They are involved in developing solutions to full-scale productisation.

CIOs feel that AI centers can work as a motivating factor for increasing interest in AI adoption by organizations. The early adopter companies to do so didn't even have names specifically as AI-based centers; they were referred to as analytics CoE, predictive analytics CoE, etc. Traditionally it used to be a single person department; the practice has slowly changed to the departments blowing up to be full-fledged research centers with full-time employed engineers and scientists. CIOs believe that once an AI CoE is established with common platforms and in-house experts, the next course of action is to share the best practices throughout the organization. AI tech is not organization boundaries specific. AI CoEs help understand which kind of deep AI expertise is required for which particular issue.