Artificial Intelligence
Snowflake to Highlight the Limitless Potential of Gen AI and LLMs at GITEX

Mohamed Zouari, General Manager for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Snowflake, speaks about his company’s participation at GITEX 2023
Tell us about your participation at GITEX 2023. Which products and solutions will you be showcasing at the event?
At GITEX 2023, Snowflake is set to highlight the limitless potential of generative AI and LLMs. We will discuss how Snowflake’s platform connects organisations to the Data Cloud, and securely leverages generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) innovations. We have recently made strategic investments to fast-track these technologies for our customers, including acquisitions of Neeva, Applica, Streamlit, and Reka.
In line with this, Snowflake has rolled out Document AI (private preview), which utilizes its in-house large language model to gather deeper insights from documents more quickly, accurately, and easily. Additionally, the introduction of Snowpark Container Services, also in private preview, broadens Snowflake’s computing capabilities to accommodate diverse workloads, such as full-stack apps, secure hosting of large language models, efficient model training, and more—all within the secure environment of Snowflake.
Snowflake will also highlight its solutions to tackle vertical-specific challenges and opportunities in various sectors like finance, retail, and advertising.
What are your expectations from the event this year?
We are incredibly excited about this year’s event as it aligns perfectly with Snowflake’s mission to eliminate data silos and mobilize enterprise data. Our expectations are twofold:
- Showcase Advancements: We look forward to demonstrating the significant strides Snowflake has made in AI-driven functionality. Our platform now not only enables secure AI/ML workloads on enterprise data but also reimagines the developer and administrative experience through AI.
- Collaboration and Learning: We anticipate engaging in discussions and collaboration with industry leaders, potential clients, and partners. These interactions will provide valuable insights into how businesses can achieve unparalleled governance over their data, access first and third-party AI models, and benefit from a self-managing, elastic infrastructure.
What will be your theme of participation at GITEX 2023?
As AI allows companies to embrace new capabilities, our theme at GITEX is focused on delivering a great product experience and removing complexity for our customers in successfully leveraging this new technology. Our AI-driven user experience is designed to delight, ensuring that our customers can fully embrace AI’s potential and confidently make data-driven decisions.
Attendees will get an exclusive look at how Snowflake enables businesses to create and monetize data-intensive applications and deploy them directly in the Data Cloud. Utilizing Snowflake as the core platform for application development can transform data sharing and collaboration across an entire organization, setting a new standard in the data-sharing economy.
Do you plan to run any online engagements such as webinars and offline engagements such as tech talks, demos, keynotes, and so on, alongside GITEX 2023?
We will be hosting an array of compelling sessions showcasing our cutting-edge product portfolio, and a panel discussion with Mohammed Zouari, General Manager – Middle East, Turkey & Africa along with some of our esteemed customers to share insights on unlocking the power of data for organizations.
How have your regional strategies changed in recent months?
In recent months, Snowflake has been focusing on helping companies in the UAE capitalize on the burgeoning growth and interest in AI and LLMs. Our regional strategy has evolved to address the unique needs and opportunities in this market. Here are some key aspects:
- Secure and Governed Platform: One of our unique selling points is providing a secure and governed platform that allows businesses to maximize their AI potential. We offer consistent protection across data and models, safeguarding data from unintended use through role-based access definitions. This ensures a unified approach to security and governance across data, computing, models, and apps.
- Infrastructure for LLM Apps: We’ve simplified the process of developing Language Learning Model (LLM) applications. Our platform enables companies to focus on customizing LLMs and building apps that unlock new experiences. This is made possible through our container-based, GPU-powered compute provisioned with auto-scaling definitions, all achievable in under 10 lines of code.
- LLM-Powered Analytics & Development: To further accelerate development and analytics, we offer built-in tools and functions that leverage Snowflake-managed LLMs. This allows for quicker analysis of unstructured data and the use of AI assistants to speed up development cycles.
Artificial Intelligence
CyberKnight Partners with Ridge Security for AI-Powered Security Validation

The automated penetration testing market was valued at roughly $3.1 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow rapidly, with forecasts estimating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 21% and 25%. By 2030, the sector is expected to reach approximately $9 to $10 billion. The broader penetration testing industry is also expanding, with projections indicating it will surpass $5.3 billion by 2027, according to MarketandMarket.
To support enterprises and government entities across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) with identifying and validating vulnerabilities and reducing security gaps in real-time, CyberKnight has partnered with Ridge Security, the World’s First Al-powered Offensive Security Validation Platform. Ridge Security’s products incorporate advanced artificial intelligence to deliver security validation through automated penetration testing and breach and attack simulations.
RidgeBot uses advanced AI to autonomously perform multi-vector iterative attacks, conduct continuous penetration testing, and validate vulnerabilities with zero false positives. RidgeBot has been deployed by customers worldwide as a key element of their journey to evolve from traditional vulnerability management to Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM).
“Ridge Security’s core strength lies in delivering holistic, AI-driven security validation that enables organizations to proactively manage risk and improve operational performance,” said Hom Bahmanyar, Chief Enablement Officer at Ridge Security. “We are delighted to partner with CyberKnight to leverage their network of strategic partners, deep-rooted customer relations, and security expertise to accelerate our expansion plans in the region.”
“Our partnership with Ridge Security is a timely and strategic step, as 69% of organizations are now adopting AI-driven security for threat detection and prevention,” added Wael Jaber, Chief Strategy Officer at CyberKnight. “By joining forces, we enhance our ability to deliver automated, intelligent security validation solutions, reaffirming our commitment to empowering customers with resilient, future-ready cybersecurity across the region.”
Artificial Intelligence
Cequence Intros Security Layer to Protect Agentic AI Interactions

Cequence Security has announced significant enhancements to its Unified API Protection (UAP) platform to deliver a comprehensive security solution for agentic AI development, usage, and connectivity. This enhancement empowers organizations to secure every AI agent interaction, regardless of the development framework. By implementing robust guardrails, the solution protects both enterprise-hosted AI applications and external AI APIs, preventing sensitive data exfiltration through business logic abuse and ensuring regulatory compliance.
There is no AI without APIs, and the rapid growth of agentic AI applications has amplified concerns about securing sensitive data during their interactions. These AI-driven exchanges can inadvertently expose internal systems, create significant vulnerabilities, and jeopardize valuable data assets. Recognising this critical challenge, Cequence has expanded its UAP platform, introducing an enhanced security layer to govern interactions between AI agents and backend services specifically. This new layer of security enables customers to detect and prevent AI bots such as ChatGPT from OpenAI and Perplexity from harvesting organizational data.
Internal telemetry across Global 2000 deployments shows that the overwhelming majority of AI-related bot traffic, nearly 88%, originates from large language model infrastructure, with most requests obfuscated behind generic or unidentified user agents. Less than 4% of this traffic is transparently attributed to bots like GPTBot or Gemini. Over 97% of it comes from U.S.-based IP addresses, highlighting the concentration of risk in North American enterprises. Cequence’s ability to detect and govern this traffic in real time, despite the lack of clear identifiers, reinforces the platform’s unmatched readiness for securing agentic AI in the wild.
Key enhancements to Cequence’s UAP platform include:
- Block unauthorized AI data harvesting: Understanding that external AI often seeks to learn by broadly collecting data without obtaining permission, Cequence provides organizations with the critical capability to manage which AI, if any, can interact with their proprietary information.
- Detect and prevent sensitive data exposure: Empowers organizations to effectively detect and prevent sensitive data exposure across all forms of agentic AI. This includes safeguarding against external AI harvesting attempts and securing data within internal AI applications. The platform’s intelligent analysis automatically differentiates between legitimate data access during normal application usage and anomalous activities signaling sensitive data exfiltration, ensuring comprehensive protection against AI-related data loss.
- Discover and manage shadow AI: Automatically discovers and classifies APIs from agentic AI tools like Microsoft Copilot and Salesforce Agentforce, presenting a unified view alongside customers’ internal and third-party APIs. This comprehensive visibility empowers organizations to easily manage these interactions and effectively detect and block sensitive data leaks, whether from external AI harvesting or internal AI usage.
- Seamless integration: Integrates easily into DevOps frameworks for discovering internal AI applications and generates OpenAPI specifications that detail API schemas and security mechanisms, including strong authentication and security policies. Cequence delivers powerful protection without relying on third-party tools, while seamlessly integrating with the customer’s existing cybersecurity ecosystem. This simplifies management and security enforcement.
“Gartner predicts that by 2028, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI, up from less than 1% in 2024, enabling 15% of day-to-day work decisions to be made autonomously. We’ve taken immediate action to extend our market-leading API security and bot management capabilities,” said Ameya Talwalkar, CEO of Cequence. “Agentic AI introduces a new layer of complexity, where every agent behaves like a bidirectional API. That’s our wheelhouse. Our platform helps organizations embrace innovation at scale without sacrificing governance, compliance, or control.”
These extended capabilities will be generally available in June.
Artificial Intelligence
Fortinet Expands FortiAI Across its Security Fabric Platform

Fortinet has announced major upgrades to FortiAI, integrating advanced AI capabilities across its Security Fabric platform to combat evolving threats, automate security tasks, and protect AI systems from cyber risks. As cybercriminals increasingly weaponize AI to launch sophisticated attacks, organizations need smarter defenses. Fortinet—with 500+ AI patents and 15 years of AI innovation—now embeds FortiAI across its platform to:
- Stop AI-powered threats
- Automate security and network operations
- Secure AI tools used by businesses
“Fortinet’s AI advantage stems from the breadth and depth of our AI ecosystem—shaped by over a decade of AI innovation and reinforced by more patents than any other cybersecurity vendor,” said Michael Xie, Founder, President, and Chief Technology Officer at Fortinet. “By embedding FortiAI across the Fortinet Security Fabric platform, including new agentic AI capabilities, we’re empowering our customers to reduce the workload on their security and network analysts while improving the efficiency, speed, and accuracy of their security and networking operations. In parallel, we’ve added coverage across the Fabric ecosystem to enable customers to monitor and control the use of GenAI-enabled services within their organization.”
Key upgrades:
FortiAI-Assist – AI That Works for You
- Automatic Network Fixes: AI configures, validates, and troubleshoots network issues without human help.
- Smarter Security Alerts: Cuts through noise, prioritizing only critical threats.
- AI-Powered Threat Hunting: Scans for hidden risks and traces attack origins.
FortiAI-Protect – Defending Against AI Threats
- Tracks 6,500+ AI apps, blocking risky or unauthorized usage.
- Stops new malware with machine learning.
- Adapts to new attack methods in real time.
FortiAI-SecureAI – Safe AI Adoption
- Protects AI models, data, and cloud workloads.
- Prevents leaks from tools like ChatGPT.
- Enforces zero-trust access for AI systems.
FortiAI processes queries locally, ensuring sensitive data never leaves your network.
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