Author: Arabian Media staff
Image: Supplied In a major step toward revolutionising digital customer service, Aramex recently expanded its strategic partnership with Sprinklr, the Unified-CXM platform for modern enterprises. The collaboration is designed to deliver AI-powered, seamless customer interactions across more than 65 countries, using advanced tools like Sprinklr’s Case Management, Sprinklr Voice, and Conversational AI. Since 2022, Aramex has modernised its customer service framework with AI-driven automation and WhatsApp integration, automating 90 per centof cases and saving over a million agent hours annually. Here, Françoise Russo, chief digital and technology officer at Aramex, and Amjad Al Sabbah, group VP for the Middle East…
Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK energy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Almost one in four British households are late paying their energy bills, according to new figures that shows how families are struggling to pay despite global prices falling over the past two years. Some 24 per cent of households are currently past their energy bill payment due date, figures compiled by consultancy Baringa show. This has risen from 18 per cent in December 2024, though is lower than the rate of 29 per cent who were behind in May 2022, after wholesale…
America’s trading partners have largely failed to retaliate against Donald Trump’s tariff war, allowing a president taunted for “always chickening out” to raise nearly $50bn in extra customs revenues at little cost. Four months since Trump fired the opening salvo of his trade war, only China and Canada have dared to hit back at Washington imposing a minimum 10 per cent global tariff, 50 per cent levies on steel and aluminium, and 25 per cent on autos.At the same time US revenues from customs duties hit a record high of $64bn in the second quarter — $47bn more than over…
Image: Supplied From pioneering CAR T-cell therapy access to supporting frontline HIV education, Gilead is aligning its global R&D pipeline with local public health priorities in the Middle East. Here, we speak to Vítor Papão, GM of Middle East, Russia and Türkiye at Gilead Sciences, about the company’s latest partnerships in the UAE, the evolving role of public-private collaboration in healthcare, and how emerging technologies and policy innovation are reshaping patient care across the region. Tell us about the recent MoUs signed between Gilead Sciences and the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi. What is the strategic vision behind these…
Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Nobody loves a good bandwagon like a venture capitalist. Among European start-up investors, “resilience” and “sovereign” tech are giving even artificial intelligence a run for its money as the hottest new buzzwords. Led by Germany’s Helsing, which pulled in another €600mn in a fundraising led by Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek’s investment group last month, defence tech companies making drones, submarines and other battlefield systems have taken the place once occupied by e-scooters, grocery apps and the metaverse in investors’ hearts. Many European…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is a philanthropist, private investor and co-founder of PimcoSome say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.— Robert FrostThe American poet Robert Frost once wrote of the world’s potential destruction by fire (desire) or ice (hate). While obviously not meant as a reference to markets and economies, it could describe the opposing menaces of inflation (fire) and deflation (ice) that have loomed over them in the past century.The 1930s Great Depression showed the economic devastation wrought by deflationary…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Browsing one-star reviews on Trustpilot is a great way to experience vicarious outrage on behalf of overcharged or underserved customers. Going by its own pricey valuation, though, shareholders are awarding the online reviewer the full five stars. Value depends on perspective — or geography, in this case — but a more moderate rating would give an untested model some leeway. Shares in Trustpilot, which produced its first net profit last year, surged as much as 13 per cent on Tuesday after a…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Brussels has drawn up political “safeguards” to appease France’s farming lobby and win Paris’s backing for a trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American economies.The EU is targeting final approval for December of the Mercosur deal, which would create a shared market of 700mn consumers by combining the EU with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.Two decades in the making, the agreement won preliminary assent last December as part of a renewed push in Brussels to diversify its trade partnerships, fuelled…
Image: Getty Images/ For illustrative purposes Dubai has climbed significantly to rank as the seventh most expensive city globally for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in Julius Baer’s Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report 2025, marking a notable ascent from its 12th position in the previous year. This rise, the largest within the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, occurred despite only a marginal 1 per cent increase in average local currency prices, according to the report published by Julius Baer. Global shifts in wealth and lifestyle The report, released at a juncture of slowing global consumption and rising geopolitical tensions, indicates…
Users of OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT in India and the UAE reported issues early on Wednesday morning around 5am, with many experiencing difficulties accessing chat history and prolonged loading times for commands. According to Downdetector, a platform that monitors website outages, 82 per cent of users globally reported an outage. Users attempting to access the service were also met with an “unable to load projects” message. OpenAI acknowledged the problem on its official status page, stating, it was “investigating” the issue with the listed services. The company also said it was “working on implementing a mitigation” to address the problems. Services…