Fast forward nine months and we’ve just welcomed our first UAE Frameworker on board. It’s been quite the ride.

Our UAE adventure started in earnest when a potential client asked us to help boost their impact at a major trade show in Dubai. From the very beginning of that conversation we were hooked on the spirit and optimism that pervades the tech community in the region. So we lost no time in taking on a fairly daunting first challenge from a business that has quickly become a flagship Frameworks client.

That client was G42, a group of businesses that’s pivotal to the ongoing transformation of the UAE into a global AI powerhouse, exporting intelligence to the world.

The result was an immersive visualisation of The Intelligence Grid, G42’s vision for the future of AI as a superutility enabled by the group’s growing portfolio of complementary technology. Our Intelligence Grid experience took centre stage at GITEX GLOBAL in October, stimulating hundreds of conversations with delegates and eventually netting us a slew of very welcome awards.

Since then, we’ve continued supporting G42 with the evolving Intelligence Grid vision. We’ve also collaborated on creative brand and content projects with companies across the group, including Inception, Core42 and Khazna.

All of which has meant some of us have had the chance to get to know Dubai and Abu Dhabi in person, immersing ourselves in these fascinating and dynamic environments. Needless to say, we’ve loved every minute.

We’ve forged countless connections across the local business and tech community with the movers and shakers who are spearheading AI-led transformation in the Global South. And last week we hired our first full-time UAE-based Frameworker, Roberta Nilerud, an experienced tech marketer who joins us as Business Director for the region.

For all the success we’ve enjoyed since last September, I can’t help feeling we’ve only had a tantalising glimpse both of the positive contribution the UAE is set to make to the global adoption of AI and of the ongoing transformation of the country itself.

I can’t wait to see where this adventure takes us next.