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Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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The future of food may not look like a restaurant. It could mirror a small container, with robotic chef arms mixing ingredients and preparing your food in what seems like the blink of an eye. That is the bet behind an autonomous kitchen now operating in Abu Dhabi’s Marina Square.
Developed by robotics and food technology company Circus Group, the CA-1 system uses robotic arms, cameras, sensors, and an AI layer to prepare meals with minimal human intervention.
Circus currently operates across eight countries. The Abu Dhabi launch is the company’s first deployment outside Europe, bringing the technology to the UAE as part of a wider global rollout. And one of the dishes it makes is chicken biryani.
“We’re coming from a simple belief that everything in food production is perfectly made to be disrupted through robotics,” said Founder and CEO Nikolas Bullwinkel.
The ambition is bigger than automating a kitchen. Circus wants to change how food is produced, distributed, and accessed, with the long-term goal of making meals more affordable and available around the clock.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
Meta glasses are available in the UAE, and being secretly recorded is the primary fear; people worry about how smart glasses could affect cultural values such as modesty, family privacy, and social etiquette.
Meta claims that, to protect against this, every pair of glasses has an LED light that’s supposed to let people know the glasses are recording. But Al Qadreya Al Awadhi, Founder & CEO of Bumblebee, says relying on a tiny LED light to signal recording “simply doesn't cut it in real life as it is easily missed.” “It makes enforcing our natural, everyday social boundaries almost impossible in shared public spaces,” she adds.
“These glasses are completely against the cultural expectations of the Gulf. I can't find a single point where they fit. Islamic culture is built on discretion: haya, modesty, and sitr, protecting the privacy of others. A hidden camera on someone's face breaks all of it. Women are already exposed, in public and online. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is real and growing, and these glasses give abusers one more tool,” says Asma Derja, founder of the Ethical AI Alliance.
“Their discreet design makes recording difficult to detect, weakening traditional social cues that allow people to object. Even without malicious intent, their presence could create mistrust and discourage natural interactions in social settings,” says Dr. Fadi Alhaddadin, Assistant Professor at @HWUDubai.
“Many government workplaces have prohibited them, because confidential spaces cannot depend on trust alone. Expect similar bans in hospitals, schools, and places of worship, plus mandatory recording indicators and consent-by-design. Venues should post clear no-recording signage. Convenience should never be paid for with someone else's privacy,” says Feba Rachel, a Dubai-based Data Privacy Counsel.
Experts say laws should reflect how AI is changing the landscape. The question is the rules of engagement and stronger safeguards before they become commonplace.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
#InTheNews: @MercedesBenz and @nvidia announced that they will extend their strategic partnership to advance the next generation of automated driving systems.
The collaboration brings together Mercedes Benz’s automotive engineering and safety expertise and its MB.OS operating system with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI technologies.
“The expansion of our partnership marks a significant milestone and reflects the mutual trust we have built over the years. Together, we aim to bring further pioneering innovations to the road, offering our customers the best automated driving experience while upholding the high safety standards they expect from a Mercedes Benz,” said Joerg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes Benz Group AG and Chief Technology Officer, Development & Procurement.
“Accelerated computing is giving vehicles the intelligence to understand the world and reason through complex driving situations. Mercedes Benz brings the engineering excellence and commitment to safety this transformation demands. Together, we’re building on NVIDIA Hyperion to bring that intelligence and full-stack safety to the road and make autonomous driving an everyday reality,” said Ali Kani, Vice President of Automotive at NVIDIA.
Does more data mean people are taking better care of themselves? “No,” says Matteo Franceschetti (@m_franceschetti), CEO of @eightsleep. “The gap is not where most people think.”
People today are more self-aware and care about nutrition and training more than previous generations, Franceschetti argues. Sleep is where the discipline tends to break down. “Sleep is the part they still sacrifice first.”
Health, he says, rests on three pillars: sleep, nutrition, and fitness. Sleep comes first. Deep sleep is when the body physically repairs itself, while REM sleep helps the brain process what happened during the day.
“Sleep technology’s job is to make the bed do that work for you, one side at a time, based on what your body is actually doing. We are not reinventing the wheel; we simply help the body be more efficient at what nature already wants it to do.”
Eight Sleep has been studying sleep at scale, including through research into REM sleep, while collecting data from people in their own beds. Instead of a single controlled snapshot, the technology can capture patterns across thousands of nights and tens of thousands of people.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
.@PwC_Middle_East’s Voice of the Consumer 2025 survey found that 9% of respondents across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Egypt were using prescription weight-loss medications, compared with 5% globally. Another 43% of regional non-users were open to trying them.
GLP-1 medicines such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro can suppress appetite and affect food preferences. For restaurants, delivery platforms, and supermarkets, the growing use of weight-loss drugs raises a commercial question: will customers buy smaller meals, change what they order, or make fewer impulse purchases?
“The medication turns the appetite down, but it doesn’t automatically change habits or cravings,” says Sabine Karam, CEO and Co-founder of iDiet.
Josh Gilbert (@JoshGilbert_), lead analyst for APAC and the Middle East at @eToro, believes businesses built around indulgence and high sales volumes face the greatest exposure. Snacks and sugary drinks are particularly vulnerable, he says, followed by fast food and delivery.
Karam argues that personalization matters more than simply creating a new product category. “The real shift will come when the food industry stops labeling and starts personalizing, so the right choice becomes the easy one for each person,” she says.
Dutta says the long-term impact depends on sustained drug adoption and whether consumers maintain their new eating habits.
Meanwhile, for restaurants and retailers, the practical response is to test smaller portions, clearer nutritional information, and more flexible pricing while watching actual purchasing behavior.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/impact/cou…
According to the Global Wellness Institute, MENA is one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for wellness tourism between 2019 and 2024, with spending growing 15% annually. The UAE has been a major driver, with its wellness tourism market growing 23.5% annually over the same period to reach $11.3 billion.
➤ @Jumeirah has partnered with Humantra to create an exclusive pineapple electrolyte flavor, available to guests across its properties
➤ The Lana, Dubai’s partnership with Aló Yoga Club extends from sound healing and guided yoga to Pilates sessions across the hotel
➤ Kerten Hospitality’s partnership with lululemon brings mindful movement to The House Hotel Al Khiran in Kuwait
➤ At Triple Bay AMAALA in Saudi Arabia, Swiss longevity specialist @Clinique LA PRAIRIE brings a holistic approach to longevity, combining medicine, nutrition, and movement.
“Today guests are also viewing wellness through a much wider lens, encompassing movement, recovery, sleep, nutrition, mental wellbeing, and preventative health,” says Christian Kiefer, founder of Spa Wellness Project Management, a consultancy specializing in luxury spa and wellness.
Laura Lishman, cluster spa director at @MarriottIntl and former director of spa at The St. Regis Red Sea Resort, says, these partnerships create opportunities to experience curated programs, treatments, classes, and expert-led experiences in an accessible and engaging way.
“Another significant benefit is the ability to maintain year-round diversity through seasonal residencies, rotating practitioners, and masterclasses. Hotels can continually refresh their offerings and create reasons for guests to return,” she adds.
For hotel operators, the challenge will be choosing partnerships that respond to the guest and destination rather than simply attaching a recognized name to an existing facility.
That means identifying a genuine need, integrating the partnership into programming, training, and service, and continuing to evolve the offering as guest expectations change.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/impact/why…
Petrol prices in the UAE have surged more than 80% since February. But what's making fuel so expensive?
The cost of shipping crude oil soared to record highs last month as the Iran war reshuffled trade routes and has tied up more tankers in inefficient and lengthy voyages. Inventory is depleting and turning oil into petrol is taking time, meaning less petrol and diesel reaching the market.
Watch the full video to know more.
@lisaamnegard
Food has always reflected changes in the world. As AI, science, and technology shape our lives, the kitchen is now a place to try out new ideas for the future.
This November, Fast Company Middle East will bring Taste of Innovation, an established @FastCompany event series, to Dubai and the region for the first time, as part of Dubai Future Week.
Held as part of Fast Company’s annual Innovation Festival in New York City, the series brings together culinary creativity and ideas about innovation. The experience will take place at Jun's Dubai, exploring how tech and emerging ideas could shape the future of food.
Dubai Future Week, organized by @DubaiFuture Foundation from 18–21 November 2026, is expected to bring together more than 10,000 people across Emirates Towers and the @MOTF, all under the theme “For the Human of the Future”.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/news/fast-…
A self-driving car has to do more than know where it is going. It has to understand what is happening around it, anticipate what could happen next, and make decisions when the situation changes faster than expected.
That challenge played out on one of the most demanding circuits in motorsport this September. On September 5, the AbuDhabi Autonomous Racing League (@A2RLeague) held its first multi-car autonomous race in Europe at Italy’s Imola Circuit, as part of ACI Racing Weekend. Across 12 laps, five fully autonomous race cars competed without drivers behind the wheel.
Team @Kinetizai from the UAE emerged as the winner of the League’s inaugural international race. The result marked another step in A2RL’s evolution from a public testbed for AI under extreme racing conditions into a competitive international series.
But the most revealing part of the race was not simply who crossed the finish line first. It was how quickly the conditions changed and how the cars responded.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/co-design/…
For years, enterprise software came with a relatively simple ownership model. IT deployed applications, managed access, and maintained the infrastructure, while business teams used the tools. AI agents are disrupting that arrangement.
“You can distribute responsibility for governing an agent, but you cannot allow accountability to become so distributed that nobody owns the outcome,” says Art Gilliland, CEO of @DelineaInc.
Joe Dunleavy, Regional CTO and Global Head of Dava.X AI Group at @endava, believes ownership should initially sit with the person or team that created the agent. In contrast, technology teams retain responsibility for enterprise-wide standards covering areas such as permissions, compliance, and quality.
“There must be a single, designated executive, such as a Chief AI Officer, Head of AI Governance, or an expanded CISO/CDO who owns the enterprise AI risk surface,” says Guru Sethupathy, General Manager of AI Governance at @OptroHQ. Without that central authority, he warns, AI governance risks becoming a committee exercise in which everyone participates, but no one has the final say.
“Logging and audit trails are also critical,” Dunleavy says. “Organizations need visibility into what each agent is doing and how agents are interacting, so they can maintain explainability and trace actions when something goes wrong.”
The answer may be to make ownership explicit at every level: someone responsible for the agent, someone responsible for the business process it affects, and someone with enterprise-wide authority over AI risk.
An enterprise agent may never appear on an org chart. But as companies give software more authority to act, they will need to name the person who owns the outcome.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/technology…
A study tracking fertility rates across Arab countries between 2011 and 2021 found sharp declines in every country examined, with Jordan recording one of the steepest drops at 24.3%.
In the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, fertility rates during the period fell below 2.1 children per woman, below the UN’s replacement level needed to sustain a population without immigration.
Even in Saudi Arabia, whose youthful population has long been heralded as an economic advantage – where 69% of the population is under 35– has seen a decline in annual births of more than 10% between 2017 and 2022, according to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority For Statistics.
“For [countries such as] the UAE, foreign recruitment can cushion this adjustment, but an aging population would still place greater demands on pensions, healthcare, and family care,” says Mouawiya AlAwad, PhD, Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at @zayedu.
A new survey by ART Fertility Clinics and IVI Institute found that nearly one in six women in the UAE has experienced infertility, with 6% currently struggling to become pregnant. A 2025 IVF-Worldwide survey found that embryo selection was among the most common areas of use among respondents who use AI in fertility care.
“The main limitation is that predicting success does not necessarily mean improving it,” said Dr. Walid Sayed, consultant reproductive endocrinologist and group medical director at Trust Fertility Clinic, part of @BurjeelHoldings. “AI cannot guarantee pregnancy, and its performance must be validated across different patient populations and clinics.”
“AI will improve outcomes by using information such as your age, hormone levels and ultrasound findings, even at age 25, to help you understand what you need to do and when, so you don’t run into problems later on,” says Dr. Shahin Ghadir, a double board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist based in Beverly Hills.
“The countries that do best may not be those with the largest populations, but those that invest most effectively in their people and technologies,” shares Berkay Ozcan, Professor of Social Research and Public Policy at @NYUAbuDhabi.
Read more: fastcompanyme.com/impact/bir…
