How ready is the GCC for the ‘AI money’?

Is the GCC ready to make the “AI money”?

Yunqi Li | Wired.Me

A McKinsey survey finds that there’s still a lot needed for the GCC to fully unlock AI’s potential.

If you have followed the recent news of NVIDIA, the world’s largest chipmaker, witnessing skyrocketing stock share due to the AI hype, you might have a good idea of how much money is lying in AI and the industries supporting it.

The craze is sweeping all across the globe, and the Middle East’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is no exception.

AI adoption highest in Retail / consumer-packaged goods sector. Source: Wired.me

AI’s Potential to Deliver

A survey conducted by McKinsey in partnership with GCC Board Directors Institute estimates that AI has the potential to deliver as much as $150 billion in the region, which is equivalent to 9 percent or more of GCC countries’ combined GDP.

The survey shows that 62 percent of the respondents from five main sectors across all six GCC counties are using AI in at least one business function. However, it is merely scratching the surface of AI’s potential.

Leveraging AI models from A-Z 

AI adoption is currently low in several areas despite the significant potential.

For instance, companies in the energy and materials sector haven’t fully leveraged machine learning models to optimize their processes from start to finish.

Retail companies in the GCC have made more progress, with 75 percent reporting the use of AI. But even in the most widely applied area, marketing and sales, only one-third of respondents reported using AI.

Obstacles to AI adoption

According to McKinsey, companies that generate at least an additional 20 percent of their earnings from AI compared to others are considered high-performing. 

But the truth is, there are several obstacles that companies face in adopting AI. These obstacles include the lack of data and technology infrastructure, regulatory challenges, and the perception of AI as an expensive investment. 

In the GCC region, only 30 percent of companies have a well-defined AI strategy or the necessary talent to implement it. And only 35 percent have the required infrastructure and architecture to support AI, and 25 percent have an effective change management program in place.

So how can companies and regulators accelerate the adoption of AI and fully profit from AI? 

McKinsey suggests that the key areas where companies need to focus include strategy, talent development, data infrastructure, and scaling AI adoption.

Tackling key challenges to accelerate AI adoption. 
Source: Wired.me

With the significant amount of attention, money, and potential in AI, it is crucial for regulators, companies, and other entities to speed up the adoption of AI in an efficient and effective manner.


About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. 

We create the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.


For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.


overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.

UAE restaurant adds AI to the menu

Would you order an AI generated pizza? If you’re a Pizza lover in Dubai, now you can…

Chefs in Dubai are now using Generative AI to refine their recipes. To mark the launch of its new restaurant, a Dubai pizzeria has added a new pizza topping to its menu. And it’s been created using generative AI.

Jumping on the global AI hype-cycle, and inspired by the Gen AI trend, the pizza chef asked ChatGPT to create the recipe.

Using the prompt “pizza for Dubai customers”, it produced a recipe that featured “lamb kofta on a thin dough, with a sauce made of tahini and sumac.”

Localised AI

The pizza is inspired by the Shawarma – a popular snack enjoyed by Emiratis and local residents across the UAE.

However the chef did have to make some tweaks to the ChatGPT recipe. 

According to an interview in The National, he switched lamb for chicken and added some other local spices, making it more authentic to the region.

ChatGPT also suggested using feta cheese as a topping, but the final product features paneer cheese instead.

This highlights a common fear of just how much we can rely on outputs generated by AI.

“Human oversight is always required when using artificial intelligence, in order to ensure the output is applicable in real world scenarios. We cannot blindly accept everything that generative AI suggests to us.

– Ayman Alashakar, Founder and CEO overwrite.ai

AI for tasks not jobs

The idea is a great viral marketing stunt to generate PR for the restaurant. But it does support the argument that AI wont replace jobs (in this case a chef).

Instead it allows professionals to be more creative, inject fresh ideas into their existing skillset, and save time.


overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. 

We create the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.


For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.


overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.

Sheikh Maktoum meets ChatGPT’s Founder in Dubai

The UAE government is developing partnerships to drive forward cutting-edge tech solutions powered by artificial intelligence.

Proving the importance of Artificial Intelligence to its’ city, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, met with Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE, and UAE Minister of State for AI, Omar Sultan Al Olama.

The UAE regards AI as a significant emerging field, with the leaders addressing new strategies to expand deployment of AI across its government operations.

Sheikh Maktoum discusses the transformative power of generative AI across various domains.

A recent Khaleej Times article reported that Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed affirmed that the UAE government is keen to enhance partnerships with leading global technology companies and strengthen cooperation with techpreneurs.

“He highlighted the remarkable impact of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the transformative power of generative AI across various domains. He also underscored the unprecedented opportunity to leverage AI-enabled solutions to expedite progress and development across diverse fields.”  

Khaleej times, June 2023.

Ayman Alashkar, Founder & CEO overwrite.ai, meeting last month with Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama UAE Minister of State for AI

The UAE is creating a nurturing and empowering environment for technology talent. 

Start-ups such as overwrite.ai are now being given the platform to flourish, and develop solutions that can drastically improve many industry sectors, such as real estate, across the region, and indeed the world.

Cooperation with techpreneurs

Speaking at a recent AI conference in Dubai, hosted by US world-leading AI tech giant, NVIDIA, about generative AI in the region, Ayman Alashkar of overwrite.ai said:

“Thanks to ChatGPT’s virality, our recognition as generative AI pioneers in the region has grown enormously. The space was far more challenging before Sam brought Large Language Models into the mainstream.

Generative AI’s value, whether narrowly applied as with our real estate themed use-case, or taken more holistically, is now more widely understood and appreciated by the MENA startup ecosystem.” 

– Ayman Alashkar, Founder and CEO overwrite.ai, June 2023.


overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. 

We create the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.


For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.


overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.

AirBnB Scammers using ChatGPT

ChatGPT has given scammers an easy way to create convincing fake reviews.  

Ask ChatGPT for a list of Airbnb scams, and it will generate a detailed list in a matter of seconds. Ask it to create a list of 10 or more positive reviews for a two-bedroom rental with specific amenities, and it’ll crank those out, too. 

And to its credit, those reviews are actually more convincing than a lot of obviously bot-generated views we’ve come across. These are the kind of reviews hosts dream about and potential guests swoon over. 

Unfortunately, while customers can use ChatGPT to help them write a positive review, scammers can do the same thing to improve the overall rating for a rental property.

The Positive Review Prompt

Sadly, it’s not hard to create fake customer reviews. AI tools like ChatGPT make this even easier. 

Type in a prompt like “Write 10 positive reviews for a two-bedroom rental smart home with a rooftop garden, swimming pool, and chef’s kitchen,” and here are some of the reviews ChatGPT can generate in a matter of seconds:

Fake ChatGPT | Review 1
“The swimming pool was an absolute dream! It was the perfect temperature and so clean. The chef’s kitchen also made cooking meals a breeze, and we loved being able to enjoy them outside on the rooftop patio.”

Fake ChatGPT | Review 2
“We felt like royalty staying in this beautiful rental. The attention to detail was impeccable, and everything was so clean and well-maintained. The rooftop garden was a true oasis, and the swimming pool was the cherry on top.”

Fake ChatGPT | Review 3
“f you’re looking for the ultimate vacation rental, this is it! The smart home technology made everything so easy, and the rooftop garden and swimming pool were the perfect places to unwind and relax.”

Fake ChatGPT | Review 4
“This rental exceeded all our expectations! The smart home technology made everything so easy, and the rooftop garden was the perfect place to relax and enjoy the beautiful views. We couldn’t have asked for a better stay!”

These actually sound more convincing than some of the fake reviews you can easily find on shopping sites like Amazon. Keep that in mind and do some digging in the review section. The negative (and honest) reviews might be buried deep. 

One of Many

That’s just one tool a scammer could add to their arsenal to cheat vacationers out of their money. Find out more here.


This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article in Broke Agent Media (BAM.COM) published May, 2023.


overwrite.ai | real estate themed Generative AI


­overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. 

We create the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.

DUB(AI) is Big Business

Last week I turned 44 years old.

On the same day, Artificial Intelligence had its iPhone moment.

The AI industry declared its Top Dog. And it’s not Sam Altman’s OpenAI.

NVIDIA, a company most people hadn’t heard of, saw its market cap soar by 24% in after-hours trading to open at $940B.

Where others like Facebook’s META have been talking about AI’s profitability potential, NVIDIA proved it. And the market rewarded it in kind.

Its meteoric $184B Market Cap pop in a single day, exceeded the combined values of Walt Disney Co.NetflixNikeBoeing, UPSVerizon, and Adobe.

(Salamu Alaikum. Goodnight. 👊🖐🎤)

On that auspicious 25th May, I found myself with NVIDIA, sharing my thoughts on a panel discussing ‘Entrepreneurship of the Future’ in #Dubai‘s stunning Museum of the Future. The event, organised by them in collaboration with the UAE’s Artificial Intelligence Office, was themed around Generative AI’s ability to unlock a new era of startup entrepreneurs.

Since then, NVIDIA’s value has continued to rise. Joining the world’s elite Trillion Dollar Club.

And investors have woken up to the fact that AI is not only a very big deal, but very big business.

Like the old saying goes, when there’s a Gold Rush, it pays best to be in the shovel and spade business.

NVIDIA does precisely that. By making the Graphics Processing Units (GPU’s) that power the voracious processing demands of Artificial Intelligence systems including OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

That overwrite.ai is a pioneering member of the #nvidiainception programme is extraordinary.

Where Dubai pioneered the transformation of the Middle East into a region the World can not afford to ignore, we pioneered the MENA region’s first proprietary Real Estate Themed Generative Artificial Intelligence.

Being part of NVIDIA’s network is validation of the incredible work the overwrite.ai team have put into developing the AI that creates the property adverts you browse through when searching for a home to buy or rent, online.

‘Unlocking a New Era of Startup Opportunities with Generative AI’ UAE Artificial Intelligence office in collaboration with NVIDIA
Ayman Alashkar, Founder and CEO, overwrite.ai and propchat.ai
All smiles with His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama UAE Minister of State for AI

And as I took to the stage in front of a room packed full with hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs, I was asked how a startup should harness the power of Artificial Intelligence for growth.

The answer I gave;

Be User-Friendly like Dubai.

Ayman Alashkar | Founder & CEO | overwrite.ai

Dubai is an undisputed Tier 1 Global City. In the 20 years since moving here, I’ve been fortunate to have been part of its story in becoming that.

Whatever your profession, Dubai has made living, working, and investing in it, user-friendly for us all.

Any entrepreneur that’s taking a good idea and using Generative AI to turn it into a startup business, must be obsessed with how user-friendly their solution can be.

Nobody’s got time to learn to use a complex tool.

Less friction equals greater adoption and user retention.

That same user-friendliness, is baked into overwrite’s ethos.

Its why thousands of real estate agents use overwrite.ai to create their property listings.

And as overwrite.ai continues to grow, I also continue to learn from inspirational leaders in our field, such as the remarkable people at NVIDIA. 

Thank you for your time.


overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. 

We create the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.


For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.


overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.