SPARK hosts AI best-practices breakfast with Nokia, Huawei and DHL
Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park (SPARK) convened a Business Breakfast Meet on 23 June 2026, bringing together technology leaders, government representatives and academics to exchange AI best practices. Organised under the SPARK Centre for Artificial Intelligence, the event drew speakers from Nokia, Huawei, DHL, Aster DM Healthcare, Coforge, Evotech and Marses Robotics, covering live deployments across healthcare, telecommunications, logistics, cloud infrastructure, robotics and smart hospitality.
Hussain Al Mahmoudi, chief executive of SPARK, framed artificial intelligence as a foundational layer for national economic competitiveness rather than an emerging curiosity. "This meeting reflects our continuous efforts to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence and transform it into practical solutions that support economic growth, improve service quality, and contribute to building a knowledge- and innovation-driven economy," he said.
What was discussed
Speakers addressed a broad range of AI applications, including clinical workflow automation in healthcare, network optimisation in telecoms, route and demand forecasting in logistics, and what the event programme termed "Physical AI", a label applied to robotics and sensor-driven intelligent systems operating in the physical world. Panels also covered digital governance frameworks, talent pipelines and the mechanics of public-private-academic collaboration.
No specific benchmark results, product launches, procurement agreements or funding announcements were disclosed in SPARK's release. The event appears to have functioned primarily as a knowledge-sharing forum and networking platform rather than a commercial announcement.
Market context
The UAE's broader push to institutionalise AI adoption sits within a well-funded national agenda. The country's AI Strategy 2031 targets AI as a principal driver of GDP growth, and both Abu Dhabi and Sharjah have established dedicated innovation parks partly to attract the regional and international technology firms that featured at this event. Nokia and Huawei, both active in Open RAN and 5G infrastructure across the Gulf, have expanded their AI-embedded network offerings in the region, while DHL has published a number of supply-chain AI pilots in recent years.
For enterprise buyers in the Gulf, events of this type serve a practical due-diligence function: procurement cycles in government-linked organisations are long, and relationship-building forums like SPARK's breakfast series are an established part of the vendor engagement process. The inclusion of Marses Robotics and Evotech alongside the larger multinationals suggests SPARK is also nurturing a local and regional startup layer alongside marquee partners.
Regulatory and standards read-across
The UAE does not yet have a comprehensive AI-specific legislative framework equivalent to the EU AI Act, though the country's AI Office has published voluntary governance principles. Organisations operating across both jurisdictions, as several of the multinationals present at SPARK do, face the practical challenge of aligning Gulf deployments with EU AI Act obligations that are now phasing in for general-purpose AI systems. Talent development, flagged explicitly at the event, is an area where UAE policy has been most active, with dedicated visa and residency schemes aimed at attracting AI researchers and engineers from outside the region.