Second Edition of /function1 in Dubai Spotlights Technology That Makes Innovation Accessible to All Global AI leaders explore how the next wave of intelligent systems is transforming industries, unlocking entrepreneurship, and advancing human-centric innovation.
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From November 18-19, 2025, following its inaugural edition in May this year, /function1 held the second edition of its AI Conference and Exhibition in Dubai.
The two-day event convened AI industry experts, thought leaders and business leaders for panel discussions and keynote speeches on the technologies reshaping industries from finance and cybersecurity to healthcare, smart cities, energy, and sustainability.
On the sidelines of the event, Entrepreneur Middle East –an ecosystem partner of /function1– caught up with some of the panelists and speakers at the event to find out more about their insights on the evolving role of AI and where the next wave of innovation is headed.
The interviewees all expressed a shared belief that AI is rapidly becoming one of the world's most powerful equalizers—dramatically lowering the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and enabling anyone to build products, companies, and prototypes without traditional resources or technical expertise.
Many also highlighted a shift from enormous general-purpose models to smaller, specialized models designed to power industry-specific tasks with greater precision. Other key areas that were highlighted during these conversations were the rising importance of AI combined with hardware and robotics, unlocking new opportunities in manufacturing, automation, and addressing global workforce shortages.
A repeatedly mentioned point was the need for AI that understands real human context—how we think, feel, and make decisions—rather than just processing text. Healthcare stood out as one of the biggest areas of opportunity, especially for discovering new medicines, preventing disease, and improving long-term health, with strong potential also in education, workplace productivity, and enterprise operations.
Overall, the view was that the future of AI won't be about bigger or faster models, but about making AI more human, easier to use, and more connected to real-world applications—changing the way we work, create, and collaborate around the world.
Watch the full video to hear more from the following: Pavel Sokolov, Founder, AI/ML API; Rana Gujral, CEO, Behavioral Signals; Ron Levin, Managing Partner, Alumni Ventures; David Ajanjan, CEO, Riddec; Sundas Khalid, Principal Analytics Lead, Google; Hershey Khan, Founder & CEO, Ignite AI; and Yuval Dvir, Chief Commercial Officer, brain.space.
