Check Point Software Technologies brought together government representatives, business leaders and cybersecurity professionals at Check Point Engage Dubai on October 28–29 to explore a defining question for the region: how to move from AI ambition to AI at scale, securely.
The UAE has set out to be among the world’s leading AI nations, and organisations across the region are moving quickly to embed AI in services, operations and decision-making. But AI is reshaping the threat landscape as fast as it is reshaping business. Attackers are using it to move faster and target more precisely, while the AI systems organisations deploy create new exposures of their own. Opening the event, Sherif Seddik, Chief Revenue Officer at Check Point, made the case that security must be built into AI adoption from the outset, not added afterwards.
“This is a pivotal moment for cyber security. The speed and frequency of AI-driven attacks mean that the reactive model of the past, with alerts piling up in queues for analysts, is collapsing. Security has to become fully preemptive, through autonomous remediation and runtime prevention. For 20 years we said defenders had to be right 100% of the time while attackers only had to be right once. For the first time, AI gives defenders a real chance to change that equation” said Nadav Zafrir, CEO of Check Point.
That partnership model was on stage at Engage Dubai, where Nadav Zafrir joined H.E. Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security for the UAE Government and Chairman of the UAE Cyber Security Council, to discuss building trust and resilience as the UAE advances its AI ambitions. During the event, Check Point and the Council announced their intent to collaborate on a proposed Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence in the UAE.
The next frontier is agentic AI. Autonomous agents that act, decide and access data on behalf of users promise a step change in productivity, but they also redefine what needs protecting. Without clear boundaries, an agent can become an unintended route to sensitive data and critical systems.
“Every AI agent needs clear boundaries: what it is allowed to do, what it can reach and when it must be stopped,” said Jonathan Zanger, Chief Technology Officer at Check Point. “Organisations that build that control in from day one will be able to scale agentic AI with confidence.”
For businesses, securing AI is not a standalone task. It means protecting the networks and digital workspaces through which AI is accessed, understanding which weaknesses attackers could exploit and maintaining control over the applications and agents being introduced. Check Point addresses these connected requirements through its four strategic pillars: Hybrid Mesh Network Security, Workspace Security, Exposure Management and AI Security. Its professional and managed services help businesses assess their environments, put the right protections in place and strengthen their security operations, with partners bringing the local expertise needed to support them.
These challenges were explored from both business and technical perspectives throughout Engage Dubai. In Genius Bar demonstrations and breakout sessions, customers and partners had the opportunity to work directly with Check Point experts, discuss their security requirements and explore solutions and product roadmap developments. The Executive Track considered the role of cybersecurity in wider business priorities, while an AI workshop held alongside the event brought customer and partner practitioners together to examine the practical considerations involved in securing AI adoption.
The message from Engage Dubai was clear: the leaders of the AI era will be those who treat security as the foundation for innovation, not a constraint on it. By combining prevention, governance and cooperation across the cybersecurity ecosystem, the UAE and the wider region are well placed to lead in AI with confidence.
Discussion about this post