'We're all going to have a very trusted AI companion', says Abu Dhabi's Presight chief

Artificial intelligence is set to become the backbone of financial services, driving everything from payments and central bank digital currencies to compliance, according to the chief executive of G42 unit Presight AI, which focuses on data analytics and AI.

“I think AI will become the backbone of the future of financial digital infrastructure,” Thomas Pramotedham told The National.

The shift goes beyond payments, he said, highlighting the Gulf region's emergence as a global hub of investment capital.

As money flows increase, “we need to build strong risk and compliance platforms and these platforms increasingly will be AI-centric”.

His comments come as governments in the six-member economic bloc of Gulf, regional central banks, financial institutions as well as public and private sector companies are heavily investing in AI adoption.

Abu Dhabi in particular is pushing hard to position itself at the forefront of AI-enabled financial infrastructure in the broader Middle East and North African region.

With AI being increasingly incorporated in systems and protocols across sectors to boost security and efficiencies, new avenues of growth for companies such as Presight AI are opening up.

Presight this year launched a joint venture with the UAE Central Bank to build sovereign AI platforms for payments, central bank digital currencies and real-time settlement systems.

Banking at the centre

The joint venture also supports the UAE Central Bank's Financial Infrastructure Transformation programme, as well as developing an AI-powered domestic card scheme and open finance systems.

Mr Pramotedham said the project underlines the UAE’s push to develop resilient, sovereign-grade systems.

“It needs to be built on sovereign AI infrastructure and the central bank is in the position to create such an ecosystem for themselves to implement these policies and regulations, so that we're in a safer and transparent environment.”

From efficiency to compliance

Risk and compliance, he argued, are now at the forefront of AI’s role in finance.

“What you're going to see is an increasing need for risk and compliance, especially where generative AI is going,” he said.

Concerns around bias and hallucinations in generative AI are colliding with traditional demands for financial compliance, Mr Pramotedham said.

This month, Presight signed an initial agreement with Dow Jones Factiva to co-develop AI-powered risk and compliance tools.

The systems are designed for banks, regulators and sovereign entities, fusing Presight’s sovereign AI infrastructure with Dow Jones’ regulatory-grade datasets.

“Presight will become a platform that will work with Dow Jones and the likes of Dow Jones to support this ecosystem as the UAE and the Middle East become a financial hub,” Mr Pramotedham said.

Trust as the foundation

Consumer trust, he said, is the foundation of any successful AI rollout, which is quite evident in digital banking as people now send money instantly from their phones because they believe the system works securely, he said.

“You turn on your phone, you're willing to do a transfer … underlying that is not technology, but trust,” Mr Pramotedham said.

The same principle applies to AI.

“If they trust the technology, the technology will become useful,” he said. “In this case, AI, better risk compliance, better infrastructure is what is needed.”

Governments v corporates

Mr Pramotedham drew a clear distinction between governments and the private sector in terms of the AI adoption.

“Government has the mission to serve us, to serve its citizens,” he said. “Serving the citizens means a safer city, an inclusive city, a sustainable city. Now, then, you look at how can AI help you with that.”

Abu Dhabi’s vision of becoming an “AI-native government”, designed to deliver services to citizens “in a much shorter, much faster and much more efficient way” is an example, he said.

The private sector, by contrast, is driven by “economic returns, cost optimisation, revenue, new sectors”, he said.

However, not every government is chasing the AI Adoption goals with the same zeal and while some remain risk-averse, others are setting the pace.

“The governments in the UAE are leading exactly how AI should be applied,” he said.

“I think organisations in the UAE are learning from that. There are organisations in the big techs that are applying AI in a much better way and we're learning from that.”

Growth trajectory

Presight reported an 80 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue in the first half of 2025, reaching more than Dh1 billion ($296 million), driven by both domestic demand and global expansion. International revenue rose to 27 per cent of the total, from less than 5 per cent a year earlier.

“Last year, we went into energy [sector] through the AIQ joint venture with Adnoc, and energy became a third of the revenue. This year, we're doubling down on financial services and insurance,” Mr Pramotedham said.

“Each of the sectors we're in, government, financial services, energy, smart infrastructure, these are the underlying sectors that drive a country's GDP. And as these sectors that have the highest economic contribution adopt AI, these will continue to be the drivers.”

Regional AI opportunity

The Gulf is positioning itself as a global hub for AI – the sector could contribute about $320 billion to the Middle East’s GDP by 2030, with the UAE accounting for close to 14 per cent of its economy, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates.

The Gulf market, valued at around $5.4 billion in 2024, is projected to reach more than $22 billion by 2033, according to Imarc Group.

McKinsey forecasts that generative AI alone could add between $21 billion and $35 billion annually to Gulf economies, equivalent to up to 2.8 per cent of today’s non-oil GDP, with banking and finance among the top beneficiaries.

Mr Pramotedham said the region is also gaining influence in shaping global standards.

“Our region is definitely shaping up to be a voice at the table on how risk compliance and 'AI for good' is used,” he said.

He added that collaboration will be critical. “The US has a very large pool of practitioners”, he said, while Europe has a strong EU Privacy Act and AI ethics codes.

“I think it's going to be a collaboration,” he added. “UAE definitely has a strong voice, collaborating in the EU and the US. Collectively, they would exchange the best practices, the learnings, and then to define what we really need.”

A hybrid future

The impact of AI is not limited only to the government or corporate sector, it is also shaping how individuals live and work.

“My ChatGPT assistant went from my fifth screen to my first screen,” he said. “Day to day, I'm changing the way we query, from health, wellness, calorie counting, fitness, the ability to get answers in a short time opposed to waiting. Translation, language, travel has completely changed because there's a strong AI assistant.”

This kind of AI adoption is likely to scale quickly, reshaping both personal and professional life on a global level, Mr Pramotedham said.

“Extrapolate that to two billion people using this kind of assistance, and then asking their organisations, ‘Why can’t we have a system like this?’ That snowball effect will fundamentally change how we work, live and play,” he said.

“I think we're all going to have a very trusted AI companion. The companies would have very trusted AI workflows. We would see a hybrid of digital workers and human workers, collaborating, trusting and delivering greater impact.”