HP bets on edge AI and regional investment to power Middle East enterprise transformation | Computer Weekly

As artificial intelligence (AI) dominates boardroom conversations across the Middle East, suppliers are racing to articulate how they differentiate beyond the hype. For Ertug Ayik, managing director for the Middle East and Africa at HP Inc, the answer lies not in another cloud AI platform, but in bringing intelligence directly onto devices – and embedding it across the full workplace stack.

“Until now, the AI most of us have used has been cloud-based,” says Ayik. “Whether it’s ChatGPT, copilots or other large language models, they run in hyperscale datacentres. That model has power, but it also has limitations.”

He believes that the next phase of enterprise AI in the region will be defined by what runs locally, on PCs, collaboration systems and even printers, rather than relying exclusively on the cloud.

Ayik highlights three primary drivers behind HP’s strategy. The first is cost. Running AI workloads in the cloud requires significant graphics processing unit (GPU) resources, power and cooling. “Cloud AI is expensive,” he says. “When you embed AI capabilities into the device itself, the cost structure changes. The hardware is already there, you’ve paid for the silicon.”

The second driver is performance and latency. Certain use cases demand near-instant responses – real-time language translation during meetings, AI-assisted diagnostics in healthcare, or industrial edge scenarios. “If you are sending data to the cloud and waiting for it to come back, there is always a delay,” he says. “For some workloads, microseconds matter.”

The third, and perhaps most pressing, driver in the Middle East’s public sector and regulated industries is data sovereignty and confidentiality.

Enterprises increasingly want to use proprietary data to train or fine-tune models for forecasting, analytics and automation. “If you’re a hospital analysing patient scans, or a company using internal sales data to predict revenue, you cannot just share that information in a public cloud,” says Ayik. “It’s confidential. It’s strategic.”

On-device AI, he argues, enables organisations to extract value from their own data without exposing it externally. This message resonates strongly across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets, where data localisation and national digital strategies are accelerating.

“We are a partner-driven company. We provide the platforms and core technologies. Our partners complement that with additional solutions to deliver end-to-end outcomes”

Ertug Ayik, HP Inc

HP’s differentiation, Ayik suggests, lies in its ability to span multiple technology domains that converge in the modern workplace. “There are many companies that produce computing devices. But how many also produce printing technology and collaboration solutions at scale?” he asks.

From enterprise PCs and managed print services to conferencing systems acquired through Poly, HP touches almost every interaction an employee has with workplace technology. “When you go to the office, you work on a computer, you print something, you join a video meeting. We operate across all those touchpoints,” he says.

By embedding AI capabilities consistently across this portfolio, HP aims to create a more seamless experience – particularly for large enterprises and government organisations in the Middle East.

While consumer laptops remain important globally, Ayik is clear that in MENA, the strategic focus is firmly business-to-business (B2B). The priority is enabling secure digital workplaces, intelligent collaboration and managed infrastructure for enterprises, financial institutions, healthcare providers and public sector bodies.