< PreviousLO G I S T I C S | 40 Vol. 24/06, 15 May - 31 May 2023 How logistics has evolved and impacted global commerce: A look into the future Innovation and digital intelligence have been crucial elements for successful logistics operations in a global scope Powering economies Logistics service providers have played an essential role in enabling global commerce LO G I S T I C S | The world of commerce has experienced significant transformation, going from local or regional to global in a matter of just a few decades. Advancements in technology and transportation, along with numerous trade agree- ments, have made it easier for busi- nesses to expand their reach and connect with customers located in even the most remote corners of our planet. Given the paramount signi - cance of reliable and time-definite shipping, logistics service providers have played an essential role in enabling global commerce. Revolutionising the global logistics market The pioneers of the logistics industry BY TAAREK HINEDI, VICE PRESIDENT OF FEDEX EXPRESS MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA OPERATIONSarabianbusiness.com 41 | LO G I S T I C S Key contributor Logistics plays a vital role in facilitating the growth of businesses and ecommerce Adopting tech Blockchain usage in the global logistics and supply chain market alone is set to grow to $3.3bn by 2026, according to Hinedi had the foresight to recognise the importance of global trade from the outset. The establishment of a trust- worthy and e cient network for ship- ping goods rapidly around the world was critical. When FedEx rst started 50 years ago, 389 employees delivered 186 FedEx packages to 25 US cities on the first night of continuous operation. Today, we are a very di erent organisation, carrying around 15 million packages every day on global air and ground networks, providing access, services, and technologies that meet the world’s growing shipping demands. Innovation and digital intelligence have been crucial elements for success- ful logistics operations in a global scope. When a large-scale network is combined with disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and blockchain, the results can be game-changing. From key insights into global supply chains and trends to the development of new solu- tions, technology drives the logistics industry’s future. When businesses require expedited delivery, temperature-controlled ship- ping, increased security, and special handling for sensitive packages, sensor- based technologies provide enhanced visibility and predictive capabilities, making supply chains smarter for everyone. The introduction of elec- tronic customs clearance enables busi- nesses to manage customs procedures with ease while reducing the risk of shipments being delayed. Web-based shipping tools, Picture Proof of Delivery services, and mobile solutions is also drastically simplifying the management of shipments. Emerging technology will drive e cient and sustainable logistics The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) ecommerce market is expected to reach $57bn by 2026, and logistics plays a vital role in facilitating the growth of small businesses and ecom- merce. With the emergence of ultra-fast 5G technology, logistics providers are able to manage their inventory and supply chains more e ectively and e - Another great example of a disruptive technology in the future of logistics is blockchain. Blockchain is one of the most talked-about emerg- ing technologies within the logistics industry because of its ability to improve transparency in operations, aid in tracking shipments easily, and help verify the origin and quality of products. Not surprisingly, block- chain usage in the global logistics and supply chain market alone is set to grow to $3.3bn by 2026, as it offers consumers transparency into the products they purchase. Shaping the logistics industry of tomorrow In a world where the borders of commerce are steadily dissolving, going global is exciting and possible with a well-established and e cient logistics partner. Continued technological breakthroughs such as autonomous last-mile delivery and increased adop- tion of electric eets in logistics hold enormous promise for businesses oper- ating in the ecommerce industry. Robust, flexible global networks that o er smart supply chain solutions and highly personalised delivery services, with a commitment to prior- itising sustainability and innovation, are the defining characteristics of logistics service providers who can not only satisfy the shifting demands of today, but also shape the logistics industry of tomorrow. $57BN The projected value of the MENA ecommerce market by 2026 ciently, resulting in higher accuracy and speed in reaching end customers. 5G technology is also accelerating the development and adoption of autono- mous and electric vehicles, that are currently being tested in several coun- tries, including the UAE. This gives us a glimpse into the future of logistics where autonomous deliveries will become more common and revolution- ise last-mile delivery services for ecom- merce companies, while also reducing their carbon footprint. TECHNOL O GY | 42 Vol. 24/06, 15 May - 31 May 2023 How to strengthen the weakest link in your cybersecurity chain in the AI era As the AI revolution grips cyberspace, companies and governments face unprecedented threats from sophisticated, ever-advancing cyberattacks. Is it possible to build a defence against them? TECHNOL O GY | A staggering 8 percent of the companies interviewed by IBM Security for its ‘Cost of data breach report ’ reported more than one data breach over the past year. The average cost of each breach in the Middle East – $7. m. With the exponential increase in artificial intelligence (AI) systems competency, these gures will likely witness an upward trend as AI-pow- ered attacks reach scale and speed that traditional attacks could not, making them a serious concern for businesses and governments alike. The AI devel- opment has led the World Economic Forum to classify ‘widespread cyber- crime and cyber insecurity’ eight in the list of top risks in its ‘Global Risks Report ’. While the use of AI in cyberattacks is not new, the danger lies in the poten- tial for AI to be used to develop entirely new attack vectors. Hackers could leverage AI’s processing capabilities to scan a network for vulnerabilities and then launch a tailored attack that exploits those weaknesses. They could also use AI to identify and exploit aws that humans might not have antici- pated. With the development of Quan- tum Computing, a new generation of technology that can reach processing speeds 8 million times compared to the fastest supercomputers available to humans today, AI-powered o ensive systems could potentially break through any encryptions known to us and exploit vulnerabilities at unprec- edented pace. The result could be a devastating cyberattack that cripples critical systems. However, these types of cyber-at- tacks make up less than percent of successful cyberspace exploits. Unsur- prisingly, organisations in the Middle East are less worried about large-scale attacks on their computer systems. Their bigger concern – strengthening the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain. People. In the 98 s, infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick proved to the world that sometimes the easiest way to hack into a system is simply asking the right person the right question. With social BY SAMER OMAR, MENA CYBER COMPETENCY LEADERAND MENA GPS CYBER LEADER, EY Cyber threat Hackers could leverage AI’s processing capabilities to scan a network for vulnerabilities and then launch a tailored attack that exploits those weaknessesarabianbusiness.com 43 | TECHNOL O GY Robust cybersecurity It is crucial to create a culture that prioritises security hygiene, says Omar engineering, Mitnick was able to take advantage of the human element of cybersecurity and gain access to sensi- tive information in some of the largest and most protected organisations in the world. Today, Mitnick’s art of social engi- neering has evolved – AI systems collect data, understand patterns, build correlations, and are then instructed to use the information to exploit vulnerabilities before covering their tracks and erasing their digital foot- print, all of it at a pace unknown to humans in the 1980s. These systems can analyse human behaviour and patterns from various sources, includ- ing social media, and solicit informa- tion from people with minimal human intervention. Armed with personal data that is otherwise hard to obtain, AI-powered systems can mimic legit company o cials and trick employees into providing information that can be used as an entry point into the network for a larger data breach. For large-sized organisations, the risks of social engineering are greater, and the consequences of a breach are more severe. But the organisations do not bear the full impact of the breach alone. IBM Security’s reports highlight that 60 percent pass on the cost of cybersecurity breaches to customers. Moreover, 19 percent of breaches occurred because of a compromise at a business partner, showcasing the inter- connected nature of cyber networks. The crucial question is how to defend against an opponent that is ever-increasing in sophistication. One that learns from its mistakes while identifying newer ways to penetrate systems. The quick answer is using AI for defence. Mimicking current prac- tises, once a vulnerability has been identi ed, it will become a part of a data set that a defensive AI system will protect against in the future. Defensive systems may even show counterintel- ligence capabilities to predictively anticipate the next type of attack. As o ensive AI systems become stronger and faster, defensive capabilities will be leveraged to educate the AI systems that are looking for vulnerabilities. Such a culture ensures that everyone understands the security risks they face daily and improves their daily security hygiene. Secondly, organisations must implement the right technical controls, perform robust risk assessments, identify vulnerabilities, and then develop a robust implementation strategy. One e ective approach is to adopt a Zero Trust architecture, which only around a fth of the companies interviewed in the IBM Security study currently use. Zero Trust assumes that nothing inside or outside of a network can be trusted by default, and therefore requires every user, device, and appli- cation to be veri ed and authenticated before being granted access to network resources. This model can help prevent security breaches and minimise poten- tial damage by limiting user access to sensitive data. Building a cybersecurity culture that emphasises strong technical controls, security assessments, and security awareness is essential. As the saying goes, you are only as strong as your weakest link, and unfortunately, people are often that weak link. There- fore, it is crucial to ensure that we strengthen that link by promoting a culture of strong security hygiene throughout the organisation. Building a cybersecurity culture that emphasises strong technical controls, security assessments, and security awareness is essential The bigger and more frequent question that a lot of organisations in the region ask is how to strengthen the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain and ensure people do not become easy targets of malicious AI systems. To achieve robust cybersecurity, it is crucial to create a culture that prior- itises security hygiene at its core. There are two main ways to accomplish this. Firstly, it is essential to address the low-hanging fruit that is responsible for most cyber breaches. Weak pass- words, a lack of security awareness, and inadequate security controls all contribute to this issue. Organisations must invest time and resources to understand their employees, their different personas, and how they consume and act upon information. This knowledge can then be used to develop internal awareness campaigns that are tailored to the various employee personas, promoting a secu- rity culture across the organisation. REAL ESTATE | 44 Vol. 24/06, 15 May - 31 May 2023 What’s all the fuss about generative AI? This technology has the potential to revolutionise multiple industries across the world, including the creator eld Creativity AI-generated art has been gaining traction in recent years, with many artists using the technology to create innovative pieces of art TECHNOL O GY | maybe concerns and debate over its misuse, the bene ts far exceed it. Generative AI is, in my opinion, giving us the positive potential of arti- cial intelligence (AI) technology. As we all are aware that AI has been one of the most transformative technolo- gies in recent years. It has been applied in various fields, including healthcare, finance, and even art. Another fast fact that you already know is that one of the most exciting aspects of AI is its ability to generate new content, which has been made possible by generative AI. This is the part that excites me (us!) most! In simple terms, generative AI refers to a type of machine learning that is capable of creating new data that is similar to the original input data. It uses algorithms to learn the patterns and characteristics of the input data and then uses this knowledge to gener- BY SHADMAN SAKIB, TECH ENTREPRENEUR AI-generated art has been gaining traction in recent years, with many artists using this technology to create new and innovative pieces of art Coming from a tech back- ground, generative AI is a constant topic of discussion within the industry but recently while talking to a non-techie CEO I realised that people still don’t know what the fuss is about. You don’t have to be a tech expert to know how transforma- tive generative AI can be. While there arabianbusiness.com 45 | TECHNOL O GY Tech guru We can look forward to a future that is more creative, e cient, and enjoyable, Sakib says ate new information that is similar to the original input data. This technology has the potential to revolutionise multiple industries across the world, including the creator eld. But more than that, one of the most impressive applications of generative AI that I have witnessed has been in the eld of art. AI-generated art has been gaining traction in recent years, with many artists using this technology to create new and innova- tive pieces of art. The technology has allowed artists to explore new styles, techniques, and ideas that were previ- ously impossible. Multiple NFT artworks have been created using AI and it has brought a whole new perspective to what ‘art’ actually is. So, it begs that question: Does it need to be created by a human? Not anymore. From a healthcare perspective, generative AI has also shown great promise. Scientists and researchers are using this technology to develop new drugs and treatments for various diseases. The AI tech is capable of analysing such huge amounts of data and identifying patterns that may not be immediately visible to humans or would have taken a very long time to decipher. This now has the unrivalled potential to accelerate the discovery of new drugs and treatments, ulti- mately improving the lives of millions of people. If that’s not enough to convince you about the potential expansion of generative AI, here’s another area that will transform the content industry. Generative AI has such a promising use is in the content creating spec- trum. This technology can be used to generate new text, such as news arti- cles, scripts, songs even. Giving all content creators the potential to save time and money in elds such as edit- ing, or journalism, where reporters can use generative AI to build drafts of articles that can be further re ned by human editors. Additionally, it is touted to revolutionise the entertain- ment industry as well. This technology can be used to create new and inno- vative games, movies, and TV shows, and to improve the overall experience of watching movies and TV shows by generating personalised recommen- dations based on the user's viewing history. I mean, the potential for this goes on and on. We have only scratched the surface and it’s exciting to see how many industries will go through the transformation with the aid of generative AI. Overall, generative AI has the capability to revolutionise many elds and improve our lives in countless ways that we couldn’t have imagined in the past. While there are certainly concerns about the potential misuse of this technology and the bad actors that will misuse the information or trusting an open source with sensitive information, as an example, the posi- tive potential of generative AI cannot be ignored. As we continue to develop and re ne this technology, we can look forward to a future that is more creative, e cient, and enjoyable. Over the course of the year, you’ll see a number of new open-source options and there’s still a lot to learn about the technology and how it can support your business needs and efficiencies. $7TR The increase in global GDP over a 10-year period generative AI could bring, according to Goldman Sachs Research Healthcare Scientists are using AI to develop new drugs and treatments for various diseasesTECHNOL O GY | 46 Vol. 24/06, 15 May - 31 May 2023 Meet the scientists using AI to cure cancer With a mission to make longevity of human life possible, Insilico’s AI technology is making great strides in drug discovery to cure cancer TECHNOL O GY | Insilico, the company behind technology drug discovery rm Pharma.AI, has made it their mission to extend healthy productive longevity for everyone. The company is now on the cusp of a revolution in drug discovery with the use of gener- ative AI which can not only cut down the time it takes to process cancer medicines, but save a lot of money while doing it. Leap forward Insilico’s Pharma.AI accelerates drug discovery and development through disease target identi cation, generation of novel molecules data, and predicting clinical trial outcomesarabianbusiness.com 47 | TECHNOL O GY Breakthroughs in science Alex Aliper, co-founder and president of Insilico Medicine (left); and Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO at Insilico Medicine “The whole [drug discovery] process is extremely ine cient, slow and expensive so it takes over 10 years to develop a drug,” says Alex Aliper, co-founder and president of Insilico Medicine, in an exclusive interview with Arabian Business. Currently, it takes between 10 to 12 years and costs almost $2bn to put a drug on the market, a major issue big pharma has been grappling with for many years. However, Insilico’s Pharma.AI, an end-to-end drug discovery platform accelerates drug discovery and development through disease target identi cation, genera- tion of novel molecules data, and predicting clinical trial outcomes. The AI-powe red platform comprises PandaOmics, Chemistry42, and inClinico – the three components that carry out the drug discovery process through the use of millions of data samples and multiple data types. Aliper believes that the drug discovery engine holds the promise of discovering drugs “as efficient and cheap as possible.” The development of the Pharma. AI platform is now being supervised from Abu Dhabi, making it the rst project of its kind in the UAE. This is a seemingly incredible feat as no drug has ever been discovered in the Middle East region. Dialling in with Aliper from Chengdu, China was the company’s founder and CEO, Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, who says he “hopes to change that.” There are currently over 10,000 unmet medical needs in the world without a treatment option. This is driving the rush for more advanced drug discovery – and what better method to do so than generative AI? “Only with the power of AI are we able to kind of crack this problem as we see that conventional methods are failing in Pharma,” Zhavoronkov says. Insilico’s AI platform identi es the right target – a protein or an entity within an organism – for the disease of interest. The target is then dupli- cated in order to modulate the disease and either “reverse it or ameliorate it,” he says. discovery process; Chemistry42, which discovers novel molecules with modu- lator target identi ed in PandaOmics; and inClinico, a tool specifically designed to predict the likelihood of success in a phase 2 clinical trial. Phase 2 is the most crucial part of the drug discovery process because the success rate is often quite low. “Around 66 percent of trials fail in phase 2, where you measure e cacy of a drug in humans. So we use inClinco to predict which medicines will be successful in passing phase 2, thus increasing the e ciency of the devel- opment process and saving a lot of money on resources and time on the development,” Zhavoronkov explains. “If a drug fails in phase 2, it is essentially a wasted e ort and nothing comes out of it. We apply Inclinico to increase the likelihood of success for any programme we put forward.” The US’ Food and Drug Adminis- tration (FDA) approved only 50 drugs last year, according to Zhavoronkov, who is also a highly acclaimed scientist in the eld of generative chemistry and biology. Only seven of those 50 drugs are “more or less innovative” as the rest are just repurposed meds, he adds. Because drug discovery is such a lengthy and costly process with such a huge probability of failure, no drugs have been discovered in the Middle East so far have been approved in the US. Several big pharma companies’ drugs rarely make it to phase 1 clinical trials. However, with the power of AI, We started generating synthetic biological data using AI. Think of deepfakes but on our genetic, epigenetic and transcriptomic data so we have billions of people virtually simulated $22.4BN The value of arti cial intelligence in the worldwide healthcare market this year, according to Grand View Research Once identified, it designs the small molecule or a molecule to modulate a target to cure the disease, making way for lead optimisation to come into play. Following this, the molecule with the highest potential for success is selected and then devel- oped for clinical trial. “We have many areas where AI provides signi cant speed-up in e - ciency to the process from disease hypothesis to target identi cation to lead optimisation and selection of a candidate. To do that, we have built the Pharma.AI platform,” the CEO adds. The platform integrates three prod- ucts: PandaOmics, which covers target identification – the first part of the TECHNOL O GY | 48 Vol. 24/06, 15 May - 31 May 2023 Insilico was able to nominate nine drugs last year alone, several of which made it to phase clinical trials – a major di erence when compared to big pharma companies which nomi- nate four or ve on average each year. “We basically doubled the average of a big pharmaceutical company,” Zhavronkov says. “Double the productivity of a big pharma company on a tiny budget.” No AI-designed drugs have ever been approved by the FDA yet because many of those e orts started around 9 and , although there were already some early players in this market before then. Insilico started using generative AI in and it took them around ve years to validate the drug discovery technology to ensure it can be trusted. “As much as ChatGPT does a very good job of providing you with snappy responses to pretty much any ques- tion, many of those answers cannot be trusted,” Zhavoronkov says. “In the pharmaceutical industry, you need to ensure that you have molecular precision and to achieve molecular precision, you need to have something like this, so we have multiple generative engines like ChatGPT that are chatting in the molecular language and providing you with desired prop- erties. And then we need to evaluate those molecules and either reward or punish each generative model.” The company began its own AI drug discovery journey in 9 and its most mature project, a novel target molecule of AI for multiple types of brosis, just completed phase and is going into phase . Insilico now has several programmes which tackle oncology, immunology, and the neural system, although none of them have made it to a clinic trial yet, it is impor- tant to note that only around four companies in the world have managed to reach human clinical trials with AI. On average, the company spends Validation AI-powered drug discovery has been met with scepticism from the scienti c community $2BN The cost of research and development to release a drug on the marketarabianbusiness.com 49 | TECHNOL O GY Research Insilico started using generative AI in 2016 and it took them around ve years to validate the drug discovery technology to ensure it can be trusted fakes but on our genetic, epigenetic and transcriptomic data so we have billions of people virtually simulated.” Insilico intends to bring its algo- rithms to the UAE and retrain some of the generative biology tools. “We’re launching a few this summer. It’s going to be everywhere, all over the news once we launch. But we actually want to focus on the Middle East because we are very seri- ous about being based there. I don’t think there is any other AI-powered drug discovery company that ever even touched that region. But we decided to make it our own.” The company also shared that it plans to launch a lab in the UAE in the next couple of years, similar to the fully AI-operated one it launched in China where the AI constantly trains itself to work with the utmost preci- sion and accuracy. “I promised this in China and in a year, I delivered it. We might be able to do this in the UAE, maybe not in a year but a couple of years because it will be much slower based on what we will need to be able to create a lab like that,” Zhavornokov says. “This lab can be miniaturised, and we can put it in hospitals for personalised drug discovery. That’s my dream.” We doubled the average of a big pharmaceutical company. Double the productivity of a big pharma company on a tiny budget Its robotics lab in China is the rst of its kind and the only one of its kind in the world today that looks like some- thing out of Star Wars, the CEO says, and has six rooms fully automated with no need for human intervention. “We started generating synthetic biological data using AI. Think of deep- about 72 hours to identify around 15 molecules, then synthesise, and eventually, test. Zhavornokov published the first paper in generative AI-powered drug discovery in 2016. In the paper, he demonstrated for the rst time that in theory, molecular structures in oncology can be generated. Later on, he published multiple papers in various journals. However, AI-powered drug discovery has been met with scepti- cism from the scienti c community. But in 2019, he released a paper on the topic in the journal Nature Biotech and made it onto MIT Technology Review’s top 10 breakthroughs of 2020. “We can now create a pipeline of over 30 therapeutic programmes, 80 percent of them on cancer – at least 23 in cancer. Some are already in human clinical trials, so we actually have one oncology drug that just entered phase 1.” “The time it takes to train the deep neural network, assemble the data- sets, and design the algorithm is not comparable to the time it takes to vali- date. Because to validate just one feature, sometimes you might spend half a year and a few million dollars. “Drug discovery just has longer validation cycles. So we have already made a revolution here.” Middle East a ‘geographic priority’ “When Russia invaded Ukraine, we moved a lot of people from both regions into Abu Dhabi. We got really good support from the local govern- ment and decided to make it our base for AI. We are still hiring some of the top people in quantum computing and AI from Easter Europe, we call them kind of ‘AI refugees’.” “Currently, we have about close to 50. By the end of the year, we will probably be close to 75 and we’re scal- ing up so this region is extremely important for us for many reasons.” Zhavornokov says that the Middle East is a “geographic priority” for Insil- ico, which is why it set up a base in Abu Dhabi. Another reason was because it has plans to train local talent and deploy its robotics lab in the UAE. Important market The Middle East is a geographic priority for InsilicoNext >