Arageek joins Ai Everything as a Media Partner

Egypt is gearing up to host what many insiders see as a bellwether moment for artificial intelligence in Africa and the Middle East. In mid-February, Cairo will welcome Ai Everything MEA Egypt 2026 at the Egypt International Exhibition Center, marking the first all-AI expo and summit of the year. It’s being presented by GITEX and hosted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology alongside ITIDA, and it lands at a time when AI is projected to add more than $1.5 trillion to Africa’s GDP by 2030.

At Arageek, we’re proud to be an official media partner for Ai Everything MEA Egypt 2026, joining this moment not as spectators but as storytellers embedded in the ecosystem.

From on-ground coverage and founder conversations to deeper editorial analysis, our role is to document how ideas turn into execution and how ambition translates into real impact. For us, this partnership fits squarely with Arageek’s mission: amplifying meaningful innovation, giving founders and decision-makers a credible voice, and helping the region read its own AI story as it’s being written.

Around Arageek circles, there’s a quiet sense of momentum building. I’ve sat in enough startup meetups across the region to know how rare it feels when policy, capital and founder energy line up like this. Egypt’s positioning as a bridge between Africa, the Levant and the GCC seems spot on, especially as it pushes Arabic-first AI models and tops African rankings for government AI readiness, while also scoring high on AI resilience in the Arab world. That said, ambitions on paper are one thing; execution is where the real work begins.

The event is expected to draw more than 350 AI companies and startups from over 30 countries, covering everything from cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity to fintech, healthcare and smart mobility. Global tech heavyweights such as Microsoft, AWS, Cisco, HPE and Capgemini will be there, alongside regional players including Alkan, Cyshield and Link DataCenter. A few UAE- and Saudi-based AI-first firms have chosen Cairo to debut products tailored to local markets, including WideBot AI, known for its Arabic-first AI-as-a-service offering. It feels like the city is having its “card on the table” moment, and believe it or not, that’s not something we see every year.

Microsoft Egypt’s general manager Mohamed El Kassem has described generative AI as a game changer for countries willing to lean in, noting the company’s focus on secure and responsible deployments to support government, businesses and young innovators. From the telecoms side, e& Egypt CEO Hazem Metwally said AI could reshape how organisations operate and boost productivity, calling the summit a pivotal moment for showcasing integrated AI, cloud and communications services. It’s all very upbeat, though I reckon the real test will be how many pilot projects turn into long-term contracts once the banners come down.

Egypt’s startup numbers add weight to the story. In the first half of 2025, local startups raised more than $339 million, accounting for nearly a third of all startup funding across Africa. Among those taking part are UK-based Emotii, Germany’s Imensus with its autonomous seismic technology, and homegrown Olimi AI, whose multilingual agents handle different Arabic dialects. Olimi AI’s CCO, Shaden El Olimi, has spoken about the need to iterate fast and focus on real customer problems, especially in voice AI. As someone who’s watched founders sweat through late-night pivots, I’m chuffed to bits to see that mindset getting a bigger stage.

The showcase isn’t just about shiny slides. Brightskies is set to present what it calls Egypt’s most advanced locally built autonomous driving platform, while THAKAA will highlight an Arabic-language AI system already used at one of the world’s largest children’s cancer hospitals. On the infrastructure side, NtegralOne Solutions is introducing high-performance AI stations designed to let teams run complex models locally rather than relying on overseas data centres, which could be a quiet game changer.

Beyond demos, the summit programme dives into the thornier questions of sovereign AI, skills and access to capital. Speakers from the World Bank and the EBRD are due to tackle how emerging economies can leapfrog legacy systems, while executives from Cerebras and Tenstorrent will discuss the practical limits of national AI ambitions, from compute power to scalable architectures. Add voices from the UN Environment Programme and HCLTech on responsible AI, and you start to see a fuller picture. It won’t all be plain sailing, and some sessions may be a bit of a faff for non-technical audiences, but this gathering could definately shape how AI moves from buzzword to backbone across the region.

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