Interview with Ilhème Ghalamallah — Shaping the Future with AI

Ilhème Ghalamallah, PhD, is a distinctive leader who combines academic excellence, entrepreneurial vision, and strategic execution in artificial intelligence.

With more than 15 years of experience across Europe and the Middle East, she has helped enterprises reinvent themselves through AI—translating bold visions into measurable impact. As the founder of Alpha Omega AI Consulting and co-founder of SPERO in Dubai, her mission is clear: to transform complexity into clarity and ensure that innovation becomes a driver of sustainable business growth.

In this interview, we’ll explore her early journey, her ventures with SPERO, and her long-term goals and vision.

Early Journey – Ilhème Ghalamallah

She holds a PhD in Big Data and AI Analytics and began her career as a professor and researcher in French universities, where she spent five years teaching, mentoring, and publishing over 22 scientific papers in leading journals and conferences.

A true pioneer, she co-founded one of the very first AI startups in France and later founded one of the first AI consulting services dedicated to C-level executives—years before the global AI buzz began. In 2012, she deployed France’s first AI mailbot for a major insurance company, achieving a groundbreaking 96% accuracy rate. Her early leadership in AI innovation was recognized with the Natixis Innovation Project Award (2014) and the Argus d’Or Insurance Award (2015).

In 2017, she led and won the first AI proof-of-concept against IBM Watson at Société Générale, demonstrating the strength of her team’s applied intelligence solutions in high-stakes environments.

From 2019 to 2024, she led presales activities for customer analytics and engagement across Western Europe and the Nordics at NICE. Leveraging NICE’s cutting-edge AI analytics platforms, she empowered clients to optimize multichannel customer journeys, generate substantial ROI, and achieve their business goals.

In 2024, she became an AI Innovation Partner for financial institutions based in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, driving large-scale adoption of AI strategies and roadmaps.

About SPERO – Ilhème Ghalamallah

SPERO – July 2024 – Co-founded in Dubai, SPERO is not just an AI startup—it is building the next generation of analytics intelligence. Its mission: to democratize decision-making by transforming the most complex data into simple, conversational insights. Starting with the Telecom and Financial Services sectors, SPERO has already developed its MVP, secured a board of visionary industry leaders, and will launch its first regional pilot in September 2025.

With Dubai as its launchpad, SPERO’s ambition is clear: to become the Middle East’s reference in AI-powered analytics, scaling rapidly across the GCC and beyond. By empowering governments, sovereign funds, and enterprises to act on data instantly, SPERO is setting the stage to redefine how entire industries think, decide, and grow in the AI-first era.

About Alpha Omega AI Consulting

Based between Paris and Dubai, the firm enables governments, sovereign funds, and enterprises to deploy AI immediately while building sustainable, in-country expertise. Its model—AI Acceleration & Team Build-as-a-Service—delivers fast impact through an elite AI task force, while recruiting, structuring, and training local teams to ensure full autonomy within twelve months.

The market potential is extraordinary: AI is expected to contribute USD 320 billion to Middle East GDP by 2030 (PwC). The UAE and Saudi Arabia, already among the world’s top 15 AI investors, have anchored AI at the heart of their national strategies—UAE National AI Strategy 2031 and Saudi Vision 2030. Yet, the shortage of AI talent remains the greatest challenge, with recruitment cycles for top-tier expertise stretching 12–18 months.

Alpha Omega was created to bridge this gap and become a strategic pool of AI skills embedded within the regional ecosystem. More than a consulting firm, it is a long-term partner helping the region transform bold national visions into operational reality—accelerating adoption, delivering measurable ROI in weeks, and ensuring that AI becomes a sustainable pillar of growth and innovation across the Middle East.

Key leadership lessons By Ilhème Ghalamallah

AI is not an IT project—it is a leadership mindset. The strength of a business strategy today depends on the strength of its AI strategy. True transformation happens when AI is not an add-on, but embedded into products, workflows, and culture, reshaping how organizations think, decide, and grow.

When AI becomes a core leadership discipline, it stops being an experiment and becomes a strategic advantage—a growth accelerator, a force for resilience, and a driver of sustainable competitiveness. This is the vision I carry: AI not as hype, but as a transformative force to align national visions, industries, and enterprises with the future of growth.

Impact on the field and society

Our impact goes beyond delivering pilots—we create measurable ROI within weeks while training local talent and embedding AI into operating models, governance, and culture. The result is that AI becomes part of how organizations think and grow, not just a technology they test..

Long-term mission-Ilhème Ghalamallah

In the long run, my vision is for the Middle East to move from being a consumer of AI to becoming a global creator of AI innovation. Through Alpha Omega AI Consulting and SPERO, our mission is not only to deliver impact today but to build the foundations of AI sovereignty—where the region develops its own talent, its own technologies, and its own models, tailored to its culture, languages, and economic priorities..

By positioning AI as both a driver of innovation and a pool of skills integrated into the regional ecosystem, we are helping the Middle East emerge as a global hub where AI is not imported, but built, owned, and scaled locally. For me, that’s the true impact: empowering nations to design their own AI future and use technology as a lever for sustainable prosperity

Advice to future leaders By Ilhème Ghalamallah

The leaders of tomorrow will not be defined by how quickly they adopt technology, but by how deeply they connect it to purpose. AI is not about replacing us—it’s about amplifying what we can achieve together. Your role as a leader is to turn complexity into clarity, to transform vision into action, and to make innovation meaningful for every person in your organization.

For CEOs and C-level executives, the responsibility is clear: connect AI to purpose, make it relevant to every function, and ensure it becomes part of how the company thinks, leads, and competes.

My Advice

Own the AI agenda. Delegating AI to IT is a mistake. It must be led from the top, anchored in business strategy.
Embed AI into culture. True adoption happens when AI is part of how your people work and think every day.
Measure what matters. Success is not accuracy rates—it’s ROI, trust, and long-term business value.
Scale with governance. AI without clear guardrails and accountability creates more risk than growth.
Think ecosystem, not silo. The winners will be those who integrate AI into supply chains, partners, regulators, and society.

Encouraging more leaders – Ilhème Ghalamallah

Leadership should be accessible and authentic, never exclusive. The best leaders don’t fit a mold—they bring their own perspective, shaped by soft skills that make the difference: an analytical mindset, curiosity, and agility.

With stronger mentorship systems and inclusive environments, more diverse leaders will rise. And with them come richer perspectives, stronger teams, and solutions that transform industries and societies.

Quote to live by Ilhème Ghalamallah

“The future belongs to the curious—those who are not afraid to explore, to fail, to learn, and to start again. I don’t follow the AI wave—I shape it into something meaningful, sustainable, and human.”

Conclusion

Ilhème Ghalamallah’s journey shows that AI is not merely technical, but a strategic lever for transformation. By connecting innovation to purpose and people, she demonstrates that true leadership in AI is built on trust, clarity, and human connection.

Her philosophy is clear: when AI becomes part of how we think and lead, it ceases to be an experiment and becomes a driver of growth and societal progress.

Follow Ilhème Ghalamallah on LinkedIn.