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.
A partner-led ecosystem
More than 90% of HP’s regional business flows through the channel, making partners central to its growth ambitions. “We are a partner-driven company,” says Ayik. “We provide the platforms and core technologies. Our partners complement that with additional solutions to deliver end-to-end outcomes.”
Through its Amplify partner programme, HP has been training channel partners on AI use cases and product capabilities since the early stages of its AI strategy. A key component of that approach is the establishment of a regional AI competency centre, staffed with R&D engineers connected to global HP Labs. This facility enables partners to develop and pilot bespoke, on-premise AI solutions tailored to local customers – particularly those unwilling or unable to rely on public cloud infrastructure.
“For example, a customer may want to build an AI-enabled customer support solution that runs entirely on their premises,” says Ayik. “Our partners can work with our engineers to prototype that, validate it, and then scale.”
Security at the core
As AI adoption accelerates, so too does the sophistication of cyber threats. Ayik describes AI as both an opportunity and a weapon. “AI is powerful for enterprises, but it is also powerful for hackers,” he says.
HP’s response has been to embed multi-layered security into its devices under the HP Wolf Security brand. This includes hardware-level protections, firmware safeguards and AI-enabled threat detection.
Traditional signature-based antivirus, Ayik notes, is no longer sufficient. “Attacks evolve too fast. Our approach assumes that any file could be malicious,” he says. Technologies such as micro-virtualisation isolate potential threats, preventing them from spreading across a system.
Importantly, HP is extending this security posture beyond PCs. For example, printers are increasingly sophisticated networked devices and potential attack vectors. “A printer today is effectively a computer,” says Ayik. “If it’s not secured, it can become an entry point into the network.”
For government ministries, financial services firms and critical infrastructure operators across the Middle East, this device-level security is becoming a foundational requirement.
Investing in a growth region
HP’s confidence in the Middle East is reflected in tangible investment – the region has been designated one of four global growth markets for the company. Recent initiatives include the start of local PC manufacturing, the launch of the regional AI competency centre, expansion into new offices, including Egypt, and the upcoming opening of a global customer welcome centre in Dubai.
The Dubai facility will be one of fewer than 20 worldwide, serving as a hub for solution demonstrations, co-innovation and ecosystem engagement. Ayik sees the Middle East as being at the forefront of digital transformation, driven by national strategies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia that prioritise AI, smart government and economic diversification.
“To be relevant, you must align with the country’s strategy,” he says. “The region is moving fast. We want to be part of that journey.”
For HP, that means embedding AI at the edge, securing every endpoint and building a partner-led ecosystem capable of delivering tailored B2B solutions.
