Nouran Hassan

The 12th edition of the RiseUp Summit took place last month, spanning three days from the 8th to the 10th of May 2025 at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), where history, heritage, and culture meet. This year’s edition was held under the theme “Tell Your Story”, allowing entrepreneurs to share their entrepreneurial journeys with each other with the aim of learning and growing. The choice of the GEM as the location of the summit perfectly aligned with the theme, since the GEM tells the story of a wondrous civilization that the world stands in awe of its marvelous innovation. RiseUp Summit 2025 brought together over 200 exhibiting startups, 300 speakers, 20,000 attendees, and 100 partners, creating an opportune space for entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners to network, learn, and showcase their startups and ideas. 

Almost all talks and workshops in the RiseUp Summit explored the impact of AI. AI is advancing and integrating with various sectors at a rapid speed, making it quite challenging to catch up. RiseUp Summit provided a platform for professionals and attendees to analyze the implications of AI’s advancements and unpack the challenges and risks of the wide adoption of AI. It is a necessity to deploy ethical and responsible AI principles along with the widespread adoption of technology to mitigate AI risks. AI risks could be even higher in some sensitive sectors like healthcare. 

In an effort to promote responsible AI practices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the Access to Knowledge for Development Center at the American University in Cairo’s Onsi Sawiris School of Business launched the MENA Observatory on Responsible AI, with support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), in February 2024. The MENA Observatory on Responsible AI aims to inform, shape, and monitor policymaking and practice related to the responsible use of AI for development and inclusion in the MENA region. Over the first year of its launch, the Observatory conducted multiple activities like webinars, policy briefs, and research. 

Growing a network of professionals in fields related to AI is among the top priorities for the Observatory. The Observatory connects different stakeholders engaged with AI through conversations and roundtable discussions. In addition, the Observatory is keen on linking policy and research to practice. Attending RiseUp Summit gives an outlook on what is happening on the ground in the world of business and entrepreneurship. It was an opportunity to engage with AI practitioners, experts, investors, and government officials tackling AI. 

Governmental Initiatives for investment in technology and AI

The opening session of the RiseUp Summit titled “Boosting Startups: Policy, Progress and Governmental Support” hosted Mr. Hossam Heiba, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI); Dr. Rasha Abdel Aal, Head of the Egyptian Tax Authority; Dr. Sherif El-Kilany, Deputy Minister of Finance for Tax Policies; Dr. Tamer Taha, Advisor to the Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and Ms. Donia Ghoneim, Vice President of N Gage Consulting. The session discussed various governmental initiatives and efforts to foster a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurs and SMEs to thrive. In the session, Mr. Heiba announced that public free zones will provide office spaces for startups with a focus on exportation. Mr. Heiba emphasized that GAFI is interested in attracting investments in technology and artificial intelligence for exportation to compete in the global market. With these initiatives, startups will benefit from operating inside free zones, facilitation of processes, and tariffs and tax exemptions. Mr. Heiba clarified that the available spaces for startups extend over 9000 square meters. This move aims to boost the entrepreneurial atmosphere in Egypt and encourage Egyptian youth to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship. Moreover, GAFI introduced multiple initiatives to facilitate the legal process of company registration through a fast-track VIP service offered to entrepreneurs. Through this service, a company can be founded and registered electronically within two hours. 

AI in Healthcare

While there were a variety of sectors represented in the Summit, in exhibiting startups, themes of the talks, and topics of the workshops, there was significant attention given to tech-based and AI startups and themes. Many talks primarily interrogated the introduction of AI in different aspects of business management and production, which is changing today’s understanding of work and business. One of the most interesting talks was titled “How AI Drives the Innovation of Pharma Tech” and hosted Dr. Mahmoud Farrag, Co-founder of Parkville, and Dr. Sameh Elbagoury, General Manager - Egypt & Libya at Sandoz Egypt. The talk covered multiple practices in the healthcare and pharma sectors. AI is now utilized to save time and cost in pharmaceutical and clinical research. It is also contributing to the personalization of the practices of healthcare as it is utilized in pharmacogenomics, which involves tracking the genetics of the patient and providing personalized treatment plans and clinical predictions. Dr. Farrag and Dr. Elbagoury emphasized the importance of the AI revolution happening in the pharma industry with the introduction of AI technology; however, it comes with a lot of ethical risks that require the development of human oversight to ensure responsible usage.

As part of the MENA Observatory on Responsible AI’s efforts to explore and engage with the intersection between AI and other fields, research was conducted exploring AI in healthcare. A2K4D’s work on the project "Governing Responsible AI and Data in the MENA Region" focused on understanding how AI and data are governed across the MENA Region. This project, led by A2K4D, brought together regional research partners to study responsible AI and data governance to inform both practice and policy in the region. One of the research tracks under this project looks at health data governance for responsible AI adoption in the healthcare sector. In this track,case studies in Egypt, Palestine, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Morocco were conducted, including fieldwork with healthcare workers from both public and private sectors. Guided by the World Bank’s Health Data Governance Principles, the research explored how health data is collected, stored, and used, as well as the challenges faced in each country. Common issues included limited funding, lack of clear legal frameworks, low digital literacy among healthcare professionals, ongoing use of paper-based records, slow digitization, reluctance to share data, and weak digital infrastructure. Both public and private healthcare sectors face these challenges, though the private sector is sometimes ahead in digitization.

The findings highlight the need for unified, digitized data systems, stronger legal frameworks, and more training for healthcare workers to help them use digital tools effectively. Through this research, the Observatory aims to provide practical recommendations and inform policies that support responsible data governance and enable safe, effective use of AI in healthcare across the MENA region.

AI in Real Estate

Another discussion unfolded in relation to the intersection between AI and the real estate sector. The talk was under the title “Beyond the Algorithm: Human-Centered Innovation in AI-Driven Real Estate”. The talk hosted by Eng. Abdullah Sallam, the CEO of Madinet Masr and the famous shark on Shark Tank and was moderated by Mr. Ziad Aly, the podcaster. The talk delved into innovative real estate solutions depending on technology and AI. Eng. Sallam explained that under his leadership, Madinet Masr launched three applications: Madinet Masr, Touba, and Safe Investments. The first application digitalizes the interaction between the customer and the company and personalizes the experience. Touba provides an innovative payment solution as units are divided into very small units, bricks, and the customers get to buy their units brick by brick. Finally, Safe Investments introduces partial ownership and leasing of properties where customers can receive regular income through the rent of the unit. Eng. Sallam shed light on AI’s role in planning and testing business ideas, and shared that not only does he use it whenever he works on new projects, but also that Madinat Masr is on the way to incorporating more AI-based solutions in its operations. 

AI in Business

Introducing AI in different companies is expanding, and AI is utilized for different purposes to digitize operations efficiently. Eng. Sherif Fawzy, the Regional Digital Lead for Holcim MEA and Head of Digital Strategy at Lafarge Egypt, gave a talk under the title “Digital Transformation Strategies in Heavy Industries”. Eng. Fawzy introduced the digital strategy utilized in Lafarge, which aims at democratizing AI by providing a platform for employees to build their own AI models to optimize their daily tasks. This is an example of AI in practice in multinational companies. On another note, Dr. Amr Awadallah, CEO of Vectara, gave a talk titled “How Advanced AI is Disrupting Businesses”. The accomplished businessman and entrepreneur underscored the impressive speed of the advancement of AI: “Two years ago, ChatGPT could only say a couple of words in English. In such a short time, it can now speak in Arabic, in English with an Arabic accent, it can even see and describe what is in front of it through a camera”. Dr. Awadallah spoke about how AI is now utilized across different businesses in various industries for more efficient processes. It is expected that in five years, GenAI will be integrated in almost every device, allowing users to deal with it as if it were a real person. 

The Summit concluded with a pitching competition at the closing of the Summit. The panel of judges included Ayman Abbas, the famous shark and the Founder of A Ventures, Sherif Ramadan CEO at A Ventures, and Abdelhameed Sharara the Founder of RiseUp Summit. Two startups, out of five, managed to attract big investments and one of them is an AI startup. Olimi AI raised 250K USD for 10% equity. Olimi AI is a startup that provides AI-powered solutions for call centers and sales teams. It automates the calls, reducing costs and delivering accurate insights for business. It is clear that investors are now inclined to invest in the future of technology and AI is at the forefront. 

AI is expanding in every sector in Egypt. The government, the professionals, and the investors are giving it their utmost attention. It is evident that AI brings many perks with it; however, this raises questions of ethical liability and responsibility that require multistakeholder approaches to advocate for the adoption of more responsible and ethical AI.