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India’s frontier firms take lead in AI-first work revolution

Mohammed Fahad
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India’s frontier firms take lead in AI-first work revolution
  • 63% of managers expect that AI training will become a core part of every team’s responsibilities within the next five years, Microsoft report says.
  • 90% of Indian business leaders believe this is a critical year for rethinking how their organisations function—the highest such conviction globally.

This year, the landscape of work in India is buzzing with excitement and possibility, driven by an elite set of organisations known as frontier firms.

These are not your average enterprises—they’re the visionaries, the early movers already reimagining and redesigning what “work” means in an AI-first era. In fact, 59 per cent of leaders at these forward-looking companies are already putting AI agents to work, automating business processes across entire teams, according to Microsoft’s latest ‘2025 Work Trend Index.’

The numbers tell a compelling story: an extraordinary 93 per cent of Indian business leaders say they intend to deploy AI agents to expand what their teams can do in the next 12 to 18 months. There’s a sense of urgency and energy in the air as organisations embrace agility, speed, and purpose, scaling up their ambitions with every passing day.

Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India and South Asia, captured the moment perfectly: “India is firmly in its AI-first era, with AI agility accelerating at an unprecedented pace. We’re seeing a workforce that’s not just adopting AI, but weaving it into the very fabric of everyday work, leaning on its unmatched speed, precision, and constant availability to drive transformation.”

For many leaders, AI has already become more than just another digital tool. It’s a trusted thought partner—fueling creativity, sparking faster decisions, and changing the very nature of collaboration in a country that’s ready to jump at every new possibility. Boldness is the prevailing mood.

In fact, 90 per cent of Indian business leaders believe this is a critical year for rethinking how their organisations function—the highest such conviction globally. Productivity is top of mind for 64 per cent, and nearly all are betting that digital agents will help unlock new workforce potential over the coming year and a half.

But the transformation goes far deeper than just operational tweaks. Job descriptions are evolving. The org chart is being flipped and stretched. Suddenly, you’ll find software operators, agent bosses, and AI workflow designers sitting alongside team leads.

According to the report, 92 per cent of leaders say they’re considering adding brand-new, AI-specific roles, while 57 per cent expect teams will soon design multi-agent systems capable of automating even the most complex workflows.

Of course, none of this happens without relentless learning and skilling. Upskilling has shot to the top of leader priorities, with 51 per cent making it their focus for the next 12–18 months. Looking ahead, 63 per cent of managers expect that AI training will become a core part of every team’s responsibilities within the next five years.

India’s workforce is truly ready for this future. With 66 per cent of employees and an even higher proportion of leaders already comfortable working alongside AI agents, the foundation for AI-powered productivity is looking rock solid.

Himani Agrawal, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer for India and South Asia, captured the spirit of this transformation: “We’re not just leading businesses—we’re leading them with AI at the center. This isn’t simply a tech upgrade; it’s a sweeping cultural evolution marked by continuous learning, creative application, and scaling up at every step.”

It seems India’s boldest companies have their eyes firmly fixed on tomorrow, racing ahead as architects of the AI-first workplace revolution.

Europe’s water crisis pose big threats to its data centres

Ana Mary Joseph
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Europe’s water crisis pose big threats to its data centres
  • Industry is racing to devise more efficient energy solutions—nuclear power among them—but the dilemma of water is stickier and more urgent than ever.

This year, wildfires swept across Europe with alarming intensity, devouring forests and filling the air with a haze of smoke. Droughts lingered across the continent, rivers shrank to narrow trickles, and day after day, relentless heat left the earth brittle and dry.

In the midst of these climate extremes, a new crisis was bubbling beneath the surface—one that few outside the tech industry had truly reckoned with.

For most, when talk turns to data centres—the humming, fortress-like hubs keeping our digital lives online—the immediate concern is usually energy. Indeed, much of the public debate has revolved around how much electricity these digital fortresses devour, especially as artificial intelligence surges and servers multiply.

But now, beneath the shadow of Europe’s wildfire-blackened skies, another risk is looming ever larger: water.

Climate change

Robert Pritchard, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, watched the headlines stack up with growing concern. He’d spent years tracking how climate change was warping weather: wildfires, flash floods, and summer heatwaves that scorched the land.

“Superheated ground results in less rain being absorbed into the ground,” he mused in a recent report.

“Much of it runs straight off the dry soil, destroying lives and livelihoods. Climate change is making water more precious, just as we’re demanding more of it to cool our ever-growing web of data centres.”

It’s not just fear-mongering. Some cities, like Singapore and Dublin, have slammed the brakes on building new data centres altogether, hoping to preserve both electricity and water for their citizens as infrastructure strains under exponential growth.

Meanwhile, the industry is racing to devise more efficient energy solutions—nuclear power among them—but the dilemma of water is stickier and more urgent than ever.

Shortcuts don’t exist

Pritchard observed how innovation is being thrown at the problem, with alternatives to water cooling under development and a push to drive down usage.

But the facts are sobering. New estimates from the OECD suggest that, by 2027, AI tools alone could gulp down as much as 4.2 to 6.6 billion cubic meters of water each year. That’s more than all the water Denmark uses in a year, or nearly half of the UK’s annual water footprint.

Despite industry optimism, Pritchard offered a candid warning: “With most technology problems, given enough engineers and willpower, solutions emerge. But cooling data centers in the age of climate change isn’t just a tech issue. It’s also deeply political and inescapably social—the solutions need to safeguard people’s lives, not just corporate profits.”

With water, there’s no easy fallback. “There’s no water equivalent of carbon credits,” Pritchard noted pointedly. Corporations can mask emissions behind green-sounding offsets, but when it comes to water, such shortcuts don’t exist.

If the electricity goes out, a data centre might flick over to backup diesel generators. But water? Having a spare “data lake” on hand won’t save the day. And as climate-fueled resource scarcity deepens, the threat of intentional attacks on water infrastructure grows all the more perilous.

This summer, as wildfires raged and reservoirs dropped, Europe’s data centers found themselves at a crossroads. The region’s digital future might just depend on winning a battle for water—one that’s every bit as fierce as the fight against carbon.

Coinbase CEO’s bold Bitcoin prophecy: The road to $1m by 2030

Mohammed Fahad
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Coinbase CEO’s bold Bitcoin prophecy: The road to $1m by 2030
  • Introduction of ETFs from heavyweights like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Ark Invest has propelled cryptocurrencies into the portfolios of everyday investors.

Switching gears from points and perks to digital gold: Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s co-founder and CEO, is no stranger to headline-making statements.

When Armstrong started Coinbase back in 2012, crypto was mainly a plaything for tech geeks. He literally launched from a rented apartment—talk about humble beginnings! Flash forward to today: Coinbase is not just a household name, but a public company, serving over 100 million users globally.

Armstrong, now 41, has watched Bitcoin evolve from digital oddity to a core asset that shapes entire markets.

Now the world wanted to know where things were headed next. Armstrong—now 41 and still as quietly intense as ever—decided to lay his boldest card on the table.

“The rough idea I have in my head is we’ll see a million-dollar Bitcoin by 2030,” he declared, eyes sparkling behind his glasses. Sure, there were uncertainties, he admitted—”high error bars around these He mused how, not long ago, the thought of US government officials openly holding Bitcoin would have sounded absurd.

“That would’ve been kind of like vision board stuff, and someone would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy. The US government’s not going to officially hold Bitcoin.’ But they do now — there’s an executive order for it.”

Regulatory obstacles

For Armstrong, the landscape was changing faster than anyone could have predicted. Regulatory obstacles—historically the bane of the crypto world—were starting to crumble. He pointed to major milestones: the GENIUS Act, which carves out rules for stablecoins, and a crucial market structure bill winding its way through the Senate.

“We’re starting to see regulatory clarity emerge in the United States, which I think is a bellwether for the rest of the G20,” Armstrong explained, fingers crossed that something significant could happen before the end of the year.

Quantum computing

Armstrong’s optimism wasn’t just directed at governments. He rattled off anecdotes about giant institutions, from hedge funds to international banks, which dipped their toes into Bitcoin while waiting for clear signals from regulators.

“These big institutions I talk to, they’re holding one per cent of the portfolio in Bitcoin. And I’m like, ‘What would it take to move it to 2, 5, even 10 per cent?’ And they say, ‘Regulatory clarity.’ That’s it.”

He smiled, thinking of how the industry had matured. The introduction of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from heavyweights like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Ark Invest had propelled cryptocurrencies into the portfolios of everyday investors.

“The ETFs have been huge,” he admitted. There was an undeniable shift: digital assets were no longer alien territory, but fast becoming a staple in sophisticated investment strategies.

As for technical threats, Armstrong was characteristically pragmatic. The era of hacks and fatal flaws wasn’t over, but the most chilling risks—protocol failures, hostile legislation, institutional skittishness—were fading. The next challenge on his radar was quantum computing, and he felt confident that the crypto community was moving swiftly.

“We need to make sure we upgrade it to a post-quantum cryptography,” he said. “Are elliptic curves already post-quantum or no? They are theoretically. I believe there is a path… Bitcoin core, Ethereum, Solana—everyone’s looking at proposals now.”

In Armstrong’s mind, the future was less about wild speculation and more about a deliberate, communal stride towards legitimacy. “I don’t see the regulatory thing going away. That was one of the big risks—is the government going to shut this down? I think that risk has been severely diminished.”

Saudi Arabia’s loyalty market to grow 15.4% to $842.5m in 2025

TCN Bureau
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Saudi Arabia’s loyalty market to grow 15.4% to $842.5m in 2025
  • Tiered loyalty structures and highly personalised rewards are gaining popularity, especially in retail.
  • Next two to four years promise ongoing disruption, as brands double down on technology investment, data-driven marketing, and the expansion of digital loyalty ecosystems.
  • The businesses best positioned for long-term success will be those that remain agile, prioritise customer-centricity, and continually adapt to both consumer and regulatory demands in Saudi Arabia’s fast-evolving loyalty economy.
  • Looking forward, integration across sectors — retail, fintech, travel, and e-commerce — will deepen as coalition and cross-partner programs proliferate.
  • Companies investing in AI-driven personalisation will stand out, as will those that adapt quickly to new regulatory standards around data privacy and transparency.

The loyalty market in Saudi Arabia is on an accelerated growth trajectory, poised to reach approximately $842.5 million in 2025—a 15.4 per cent annual increase.

Between 2020 and 2024, the sector grew at an impressive CAGR of 17.2 per cent, and further expansion is forecast as the market is projected to hit $1.37 billion by 2029, thanks to an expected CAGR of 13 per cent from 2025 to 2029, ResearchAndMarkets.com said in its report.

The rapid transformation is being driven by a potent mix of digital innovation, shifting consumer expectations, and government policy support—particularly initiatives aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.

The ecosystem is seeing a marked shift from traditional card-based programs to sophisticated digital loyalty platforms, which offer dynamic engagement via mobile apps, instant rewards, and seamless integration with e-commerce and fintech ecosystems.

Tiered loyalty structures and highly personalised rewards are gaining popularity, especially in retail, as brands seek to deepen engagement and incentivise repeat business. The integration of fintech has accelerated this evolution, providing frictionless rewards and innovative digital payment-linked solutions.

Delivering hyper-personalised offers

In this data-fueled landscape, brands are harnessing analytics and artificial intelligence to deliver hyper-personalised offers. Coalition programs, which unite partners from different industries, are also gaining traction—allowing consumers to earn and redeem benefits across a broader ecosystem.

Trending now are digital-first platforms: STC Pay, for example, has built loyalty capabilities directly into its digital wallet, while e-commerce players like Noon and Amazon Saudi Arabia entice shoppers with cashback and exclusive discounts.

The push towards digital loyalty is firmly supported by widespread smartphone adoption, a burgeoning digital payments ecosystem, and a tech-savvy young population that favours convenience and instant gratification over legacy paper or plastic schemes.

Vision 2030’s emphasis on digital transformation and cashless transactions further catalyses this momentum by creating an ideal environment for digital loyalty platforms to thrive.

Looking forward, integration across sectors — retail, fintech, travel, and e-commerce — will deepen as coalition and cross-partner programs proliferate.

Companies investing in AI-driven personalisation will stand out, as will those that adapt quickly to new regulatory standards around data privacy and transparency. Stricter oversight is likely, ensuring greater consumer protection but also raising the bar for operational compliance.

Prioritising customer-centricity

Saudi Arabia’s loyalty market landscape remains moderately fragmented, with established leaders such as STC Pay (telecom and payments), Saudia Airlines’ Alfursan (travel), and Jarir Bookstore (retail), alongside global brands like Amazon and Carrefour.

Meanwhile, fintech startups such as Hala and Geidea are shaking up the industry with agile, innovative approaches, particularly for the youth market.

Despite the fragmentation, consolidation is on the horizon. Larger players are expected to acquire or partner with smaller firms to expand their technological capabilities and broaden customer bases.

At the same time, niche verticals—from luxury retail to local services—continue to see new entrants and specialised offerings, ensuring a competitive, collaborative landscape.

The next two to four years promise ongoing disruption, as brands double down on technology investment, data-driven marketing, and the expansion of digital loyalty ecosystems.

The businesses best positioned for long-term success will be those that remain agile, prioritise customer-centricity, and continually adapt to both consumer and regulatory demands in Saudi Arabia’s fast-evolving loyalty economy.

Cybersecurity training against phishing is a “waste of time”

Ana Mary Joseph
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Cybersecurity training against phishing is a “waste of time”
  • Statistical comparisons reveal no significant improvement among employees who had completed recent training as compared to those without such experience.
  • Organisations need to recalibrate their expectations regarding the impact of both annual security awareness training and standard embedded phishing interventions as they are typically implemented today.

A significant new study has cast serious doubt on the practical effectiveness of standard cybersecurity training programs in reducing organisational vulnerability to phishing attacks.

Despite extensive awareness efforts, recent research indicates that such initiatives may offer negligible protection against real-world social engineering threats.

Over an eight-month period, researchers from UC San Diego, University of Chicago, and UC San Diego Health conducted a rigorous experiment within a major US healthcare organisation.

The study involved ten rounds of simulated phishing campaigns delivered to more than 19,500 employees, aiming to objectively assess the efficacy of various cybersecurity training modalities.

Key findings

The principal finding of this analysis is that recent participation in cybersecurity awareness training activities did not lead to a measurable reduction in the likelihood of falling victim to simulated phishing.

Statistical comparisons revealed no significant improvement among employees who had completed recent training as compared to those without such experience.

Alarmingly, the data further demonstrated that personnel who had undergone several static cybersecurity courses were marginally more likely to fail phishing tests, suggesting that repetition of conventional content may contribute to disengagement or “training fatigue.”

Marginal benefits of embedded training

One subtle exception was observed: participants who encountered an embedded, real-time phishing intervention—such as an immediate notification when clicking on a simulated phishing link—showed an extremely modest reduction in subsequent failures, amounting to only a 1.7% improvement.

The result, however, underscores the overall minimal impact of traditional training approaches.

The research highlighted the scale of the problem. More than half of all users (56%) clicked on at least one fabricated phishing email during the study period.

Repeated susceptibility was substantial, with approximately 26% of users failing two or more simulations, and nearly 10% falling for at least three out of ten attempts. Notably, one individual responded to every single phishing simulation.

The most effective phishing lures were themed around ubiquitous workplace scenarios, such as vacation policy updates, dress code notifications, and traffic ticket warnings.

The most successful campaign, purportedly from human resources about an “Updated vacation and sick time policy,” deceived 30.8% of recipients.

Analysis of user behaviour during post-failure training sessions revealed worrying levels of disengagement. Over half of sessions lasted fewer than ten seconds, and less than a quarter of participants completed the training material in full. This pattern suggests that many employees view such training solely as a compliance exercise rather than a meaningful educational opportunity.

Implications and recommendations

Despite substantial organisational efforts, failure rates consistently exceeded 15% in most phishing simulations, regardless of training frequency or form.

The study did not propose specific solutions, but it emphasised the urgent need for future initiatives to focus on improving user engagement and the overall effectiveness of phishing awareness strategies.

Based on robust empirical evidence, the researchers concluded that organisations should recalibrate their expectations regarding the impact of both annual security awareness training and standard embedded phishing interventions as they are typically implemented today.

Xiaomi plots European EV push on back of China boom

Mohammed Fahad
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Xiaomi plots European EV push on back of China boom
  • Company delivered 81,302 EVs in just one quarter, a staggering 197.7% year-on-year increase.
  • If it can translate its China playbook to European soil, the continent’s EV scene could be in for quite the shakeup.

China’s Xiaomi Corporation is plotting a bold leap beyond its homeland: the company has officially set its sights on entering the European electric vehicle (EV) market by 2027.

The ambition follows a period of remarkable domestic progress that’s caught the attention of the global auto and tech scenes.

Xiaomi’s announcement was timed just after releasing a set of stellar financials for the June quarter, which saw a 30.5 per cent jump in quarterly revenue—topping out at 116 billion yuan (around $16.2 billion).

The engine behind this surge? The company’s new smart EV push, its growing AI initiatives, and other new ventures, which contributed 21.3 billion yuan in the second quarter of 2025 alone.

What’s even more impressive is Xiaomi’s performance in vehicle sales: The company delivered 81,302 EVs in just one quarter, a staggering 197.7 per cent year-on-year increase.

Their growing EV footprint now includes 335 retail and service centres in 92 Chinese cities—an impressive net addition of 100 centers in just three months.

Trimming losses

Despite heavy investment in automotive innovation, Xiaomi is making progress toward profitability: the EV division’s losses slimmed down to roughly 300 million yuan and its overall gross margin (counting EVs and AI) spiked to 26.4 per cent for Q2, a major leap from last year’s 15.4 per cent margin.

Zooming out, the entire Chinese auto industry is enjoying a renaissance. In July 2025, Chinese brands sold 2.59 million vehicles—up nearly 15 per cent year-on-year—according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Export growth outpaced even domestic sales, jumping 23 per cent to 575,000 units, showing Chinese ingenuity is making its presence felt worldwide.

Milestones

June saw another Xiaomi milestone with the debut of the YU7, its first battery-electric SUV. The local buzz was electric—over 200,000 orders rolled in just one hour after launch, underlining Xiaomi’s pull with tech-forward Chinese drivers.

Not content to rest, Xiaomi locked down a 50-year lease in Beijing for more than 485,000 square meters. The space will serve as a nucleus for smart automotive and component manufacturing, adding muscle to the company’s vertical integration strategy.

And let’s not forget financing: back in March, Xiaomi made headlines by raising $5.5 billion via a major share placement, securing ample resources to fuel both Chinese operations and the hoped-for European debut.

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