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EDITOR’ S NOTE
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Intelligent CIO Middle East. This month’ s cover story, which can be found on page 14, features Jaydeep Anand, Co-founder, Chief Development Officer & Chief Sustainability Officer, FIVE Holdings. He tells us how the hotel group partnered with HPE Aruba Networking to modernise its ageing digital infrastructure, ensuring reliable connectivity that enhances guest experiences and empowers staff.
Anand explains that seamless Wi-Fi has become as vital to guests as water or electricity, with expectations ranging from streaming and video calls to uninterrupted roaming across hotel spaces.
The shift to AI-driven networking not only resolved long-standing issues like patchy coverage but also gave the IT team powerful tools for troubleshooting, freeing them to focus on strategy.
Beyond improving service, the system contributes to sustainability by cutting power consumption through intelligent automation. For staff, AI delivers actionable insights in minutes, transforming IT from a cost centre into a strategic driver of innovation and efficiency.
FIVE Hotels’ network is now a living platform, evolving with guest expectations while maintaining operational resilience and security. The project highlights how invisible yet intelligent infrastructure is redefining hospitality, enabling comfort, loyalty and sustainability in a fast-paced digital era.
Jacob Chacko, Regional Director, Middle East & Africa at HPE Networking, adds that HPE Aruba Networking is a trusted partner for hospitality, driving AI-native networking, sustainability and guest-centric
innovation. He explains that through projects like FIVE Hotels, it delivers secure Wi-Fi, smart rooms and ecofriendly solutions, enabling cost savings, efficiency and Digital Transformation.
Elsewhere, we learn how Robotic Process Automation( RPA) has matured in the Middle East, evolving from a back-office tool into a strategic capability that supports resilience, scalability and Digital Transformation. It continues to deliver strong ROI in high-volume, rulesbased processes, while also bridging legacy systems and enabling more advanced automation with AI and Machine Learning.
However, experts warn that many deployments fail when businesses overlook process assessment, change management and governance, leading to brittle bots and wasted investment.
Increasingly, organisations are moving beyond task automation to intelligent automation ecosystems, where RPA integrates with low-code platforms, process mining and AI to deliver end-to-end workflows. As adoption spreads across enterprises and SMEs, RPA is no longer seen as a threat to jobs but as an enabler of the‘ augmented employee’, making it both a strategic necessity and a foundation for future competitiveness in the region. You can read more starting on p35.
If you are attending GITEX this year, we hope you have an enjoyable and productive time at the event. May it be a valuable opportunity to explore the latest innovations, connect with peers and gain insights that inspire your business journey.
Mark Bowen Editor
www. intelligentcio. com INTELLIGENTCIO MIDDLE EAST 3