UAE-tailored services to leverage AI

UAE

Waris Saleem, co-founder and director of Agile Managex Technologies, talks to The Energy Year about developing software tools that help Emirati energy companies solve supply chain challenges and about building strong technology partnerships across the GCC. Agile Managex Technologies is an IT infrastructure, cybersecurity and digital transformation company.

What makes Agile Managex a key player in digital transformation?
Agile is a systems integrator that focuses on IT infrastructure, cybersecurity and digital transformation using AI and AI-related products. Globally, our digital transformation business is taking the lead, and in the Middle East, IT and cybersecurity are booming, with large enterprises driving the market.
Agile helps organisations optimise their operations and make the best use of the AI solutions available on the market, making them more intelligent. Digital transformation is happening across industries, so we provide solutions for all verticals – including oil and gas, which is a key sector here.
Our AI product portfolio offers significant value in solution deployment and is suitable for enterprises and SMEs. Rockwell Automation is one of our customers, and we are also collaborating with government entities, which lead the UAE’s innovation. We are also in discussions with organisations to create digital AI-powered hubs to optimise decision making.
What sets Agile apart is our proprietary platform with E42, which features locally deployable LLMs [large language models] and on-prem capabilities that can deliver customised, plug-and-play solutions tailored to client needs.

How do you integrate cybersecurity into your digital solutions?
Cybersecurity is a major challenge in digital transformation, especially for enterprises and SMEs concerned about data security. We address this with proprietary LLMs, on-prem deployments and SOC [system and organisation controls] solutions, backed by our dedicated cybersecurity operations. As businesses digitise, they become more vulnerable to cyber threats, so compliance and security become more important.
Agile was founded with a vision to be a regional leader in IT infrastructure and cybersecurity. We tailor our products and services to this region, ensuring that our AI and cybersecurity solutions are locally viable. We are making sure that the local enterprises and SMEs get the best out of the technologies.

How do you ensure that Agile stays at the forefront?
Digital transformation evolves rapidly, with new technologies surpassing previous ones, as we saw with ChatGPT and DeepSeek. To stay at the forefront, we partner with leading vendors so that our products deliver the latest compliant solutions. For instance, we are a platinum partner with SentinelOne, an AI-powered endpoint security platform already deployed across various organisations.
Additionally, we collaborate with E42, a US- and India-based partner offering solutions comparable to IBM. As a system integrator, we focus on selecting technologies that address client challenges and are supported by a streamlined process to onboard new partners and deliver effective solutions. Partnerships remain key to our success.

What solutions do you offer to the energy industry?
In the energy industry, particularly in the UAE and the Middle East, we focus on digital transformation with solutions such as agentic AI and smart surveillance based on computer vision to enhance compliance using existing enterprise infrastructure. Key clients such as ADNOC, ENOC [Emirates National Oil Company] and Saudi Aramco face challenges with supply chain logistics and operations at remote sites with limited connectivity. Our solutions address these issues, enabling predictive maintenance, hazard monitoring and real-time analytics while automating processes to reduce human involvement.
For example, we created a computer vision model for a client to manage inventory in real time, and it improved accuracy and efficiency. We prioritise cost-effective, compliant solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing systems. By applying proprietary AI models, we deliver innovative technologies that are applicable across industries while encouraging clients to build comprehensive infrastructures to solve multiple challenges, rather than relying solely on out-of-the-box solutions that solve only one.

What is your assessment of the UAE’s progress towards AI and digital transformation?
The UAE is probably the only country that has an AI ministry. On top of that, there is the Digital Dubai Authority, which is leading the initiative to transform government organisations. We are participating in the initiative. We remain at the back end because we are a tech house. We create the solutions, and different organisations use them for different departments.

What is your strategy for expanding into the GCC region?
Our GCC strategy varies by vertical, with distinct approaches for cybersecurity and digital transformation. For digital transformation, we are targeting the Saudi market alongside the UAE, with plans to expand to Riyadh. We are building solutions with partners, including a computer vision solution to track metrics for a partner that handles 90% of the region’s QSR [quick-service-restaurant] business.
In cyber, we operate in the UAE and parts of Saudi Arabia and focus on products, compliance, and an MSP [managed service provider] model. We are the sole distributor of GFI cybersecurity hardware and PAM [privileged access management] solutions in the GCC and the broader Middle East.
Our back-office team in Pakistan monitors infrastructure via security and network governance centres. While the UAE is digitally advanced, we see significant opportunities in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait, where we are building partnerships. We recently started a collaboration with BurhanTec and other Kuwaiti organisations for cyber and digital transformation solutions.
By the end of 2025, we plan to strengthen our expertise, expand into Saudi Arabia and across the GCC, and establish a strong partner ecosystem. And in five years, we aim to be a leading regional system integrator in infrastructure and cybersecurity, and a market leader in AI and digital transformation, with a strong presence across the entire GCC.

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