Alumni Spotlight: Uniting people to help AI do good

A childhood visit to her father’s workplace left an indelible impression on a young Raisa Mahomed, where the office’s servers and printers ignited within her a deep wonder and curiosity for technology, its purpose and potential; a curiosity that has since taken her around the world as she strives to implement technology for the good of society.

“Technology is in my blood,” she said. “During school I was already doing websites and projects for friends and relatives, and helping people who were starting companies. Later, I chose to study a double major in business management and organizational psychology, which helped me shape the managerial and leadership aspects of technology. That’s where it all started.”

Years later in her technology career, South Africa-born Mahomed worked across Africa, Europe, the Americas, and currently the Middle East, with the UAE her home for the past eight years. Throughout this journey, she has focused on helping companies find sustainable tech-led solutions to their challenges.

“One of the biggest things that I enjoy and am good at is solving problems, so my career shaped into what we would call a solutions architect,” she said. “Thanks to the learnings instilled in me by my Mum, I developed a passion for helping people and putting in place these big transformational projects which not only lay the foundation for companies to grow but also for people to excel.”

This is exactly what she is doing in her current role as chief technology officer of OpusDigitech, a Dubai-based provider of digital platforms and solutions designed to help energy companies become more efficient and resilient, with a view to improving sustainability and advancing ESG (environmental, social, and governance) goals.

“I lead the technology piece here in terms of how we best utilise the tools that AI offers us to reach better outcomes, combining them with the foundational tools and concepts that we already have,” she said, adding that the role of the CTO has become exponentially more important as technology has advanced —  a situation that forced her to think about her career development.

With a desire to further her understanding of AI, both from a technical and business perspective, Mahomed turned to Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, joining the MEP – MBZUAI Executive Program in 2023.

“A lot of the time we go into the technical depths of things without understanding the impact a particular technology has on our business and society, and I wanted to understand this better,” she said. “Also, from a leadership perspective, where do you actually start with AI projects? How do you start implementing it? AI itself isn’t new, but it moves fast, and a lot of people don’t fully grasp what it is and what it can do today.

“The program was like a survival guide, helping us to understand these things more clearly. We had the cream of the crop from a professor perspective, helping us with the technical side, but it also helped us to think more deeply about how to frame AI, how to decide where it fits within our organisations, and so on. It gave us the right questions to ask, and showed us which pathways we could go down.”

One aspect of the program that Mahomed found particularly beneficial was the way it brought people together, providing a network that can help advance the use of AI across the UAE. “It’s a big advantage to have so many like-minded people discussing these things,” she said. “You’ve got professors and business leaders who can exchange notes and discuss the challenges and opportunities such as where we’re stuck, where we’re accelerating, where we’re achieving or underachieving, the ethical implications, and so on.

“It really allowed us to shape our blueprints for our AI approaches so that we can help the UAE be at the forefront of AI innovation, implementation and adoption, and drive ‘good’; whether that’s related to the environment, security, governance, or something else.”

As a result of her time on the program, Mahomed saw the opportunity to bring industry into closer contact and cooperation with the university — an opportunity she took by joining the Alumni Advisory Board.

“I was pleased to learn about this opportunity to ‘pay it forward’ by helping students bridge the gap between academia and the wider world,” she said. “For many students, you complete your master’s or your Ph.D. and then the real world hits you in the face. The board helps them understand what is expected of them when they take on a role and enter the workforce.

“I lead the Philanthropy and Outreach Committee, which is really about looking at how we can further the role of the university within society. We look at the relationship between industry and academia, and try to drive a greater partnership between the two. In the past, industries have typically consumed what academia produces, but we have the opportunity to forge more valuable partnerships. This means that students can get exposure to the working world earlier on in their studies, and businesses have access to the tools and skills that will help them solve particular problems and meet particular challenges. Students can even take inspiration from industry partners and use ‘real world’ situations and challenges as subjects for their theses, which means they can implement their work earlier and find solutions faster.”

No doubt Mahomed’s long experience of walking the line between technology and business will be a boon to students at MBZUAI, in the same way that her experience on the Executive Education Program and the networks she’s built will enhance her business, her clients, and the future of the UAE. A fine example of mutual benefits coming out of an intention to do good.