Page 18 - SAMENA Trends - June-July 2025

LEADERS' SUMMIT 2025 SAMENA TRENDS

Leaders’ Summit 2025 Impact & Closing Analysis
Across all panels and sessions of the SAMENA Council Leaders’ Summit From Infrastructure to Intelligence
2025, one message was clear: The future of digital economies depends Speakers, including Huawei and e& UAE, emphasized
on cooperation that extends across sectors, borders, and disciplines. how AI is now central to the network fabric. Broadband,
There is no substitute for trust built through transparency and sustained cloud computing, and AI are merging into a single
partnership. Digital skills remain a critical constraint, especially in countries infrastructure layer. The future lies in intelligent
that have rolled out infrastructure but lack the human capacity to fully use broadband and networks that can adjust in real-
it. Participants called for more investment in training, experimentation, and time, learn from usage, and adapt capacity based on
practical testbeds to ensure new technologies deliver tangible benefits. applications, user needs, or energy considerations.
Municipal collaboration was recognized as vital for the rollout of 5G and With AI and parallel computing driving new traffic
future networks, with urban infrastructure often being the key barrier or demands, optical networks will need to be treated not
enabler. Whether in cybersecurity, regulation, or infrastructure investment, just as transport systems but as responsive service
the conversations consistently pointed toward a shared recognition: environments.
strategy must now turn to execution.
Toward Smarter Networks and User-Centric Growth
The SAMENA Council CEO’s words summed up the Leaders’ Summit’s Growing the user base and improving broadband quality
impact and the needs of the future: “Our digital future will be shaped by the is not just a matter of coverage. Strategies shared by
decisions we take today in how we lead, how we collaborate, and how we Zain and Huawei focused on setting bold national
invest in building societies that are empowered by technology, not targets, ensuring wholesale access to infrastructure,
overwhelmed by it. The Leaders’ Summit 25 is a reflection of that and incentivizing both network expansion and service
responsibility, and of our collective ambition to get it right. The future of innovation. AI-powered platforms were seen as crucial
our digital societies will not be authored by technology alone, but will be to improving user experience, supporting predictive
defined by how wisely we govern, how inclusively we build, and how maintenance, and enabling the launch of new digital
responsibly we lead.” services that go beyond traditional connectivity.

18 JUNE-JULY 2025