Majid Al Futtaim CEO: Treat AI like financial capital
Ahmed Galal Ismail says AI shapes 9% of transactions and agents may rival office staff
Sharjah: Lifestyle conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim expects its AI agents to match the size of its office-based workforce in the near future. CEO Ahmed Galal Ismail told the audience at the Sharjah Investment Forum (SIF) that the retailer already runs agents alongside employees. He also revealed that nine per cent of Majid Al Futtaim’s customer transactions now involve an AI agent. This could vary from recommending products, nudging choices or steering purchases.
Ismail was speaking at “The Consumer of 2035” session at SIF, which was moderated by Rania Saadi of Pulse95 Radio. He argued that managing people and machines together demanded a new toolkit for allocating resources. He called the skill “integrative intelligence”, that, which blends analytics, empathy, insight and intuition with agentic AI.
Companies must also protect what powers those agents. Ismail names data assets, algorithms and agents as a firm’s intellectual capital. “That type of intellectual capital is something that needs to be treated with the same level of care and prudence, just like we deal with financial and human capital,” he said.
Online shopping drives 25% of MAF retail
One quarter of the retailer’s business now runs online, Ismail shared. He said that there was growing demand for groceries, entertainment and other services to be made available at home as much as there is appetite for distinctive experiences outside the home.
“We are in the business of experiences, whether we deliver that experience at home or curate it in a shopping destination,” he noted.
He also pointed out how online advertising was growing fast. Digital advertising was Majid Al Futtaim’s quickest-growing revenue stream in its latest first-half results. Its AI-enabled Precision Media business uses apps and loyalty platforms to place relevant advertisements at the right moment. The model extends the company’s reach across physical and digital shopping journeys.
Ismail links that rise to trust. AI increases price and product transparency, so relationships carry more weight. He used Edelman’s Trust Barometer and Microsoft’s AI-use research, to show the correlation between institutional trust and AI use. The UAE ranks strongly on both.
“Customers will continue to give a bigger share of their hearts, minds and wallets to brands and companies that they trust more,” he said.
