Xybern
Gulf Business · Interview · 18 September 2026
Dr. Charalambos Theodorou, Founder & CEO of Xybern, joins regional AI leaders in Gulf Business to discuss the global AI slowdown debate, the GCC's approach to AI adoption, and the growing security challenges created by increasingly autonomous AI systems.
The discussion explores why AI capability and AI deployment should be treated differently, and why identity, authorisation, human oversight and clearly defined operational boundaries will become increasingly important as AI systems move from generating information to independently executing actions.
Key themes
- AI capability vs. AI deployment: why the two should be treated differently, and why a capable system is not automatically one that should be deployed to act.
- Identity: knowing which AI agent is acting, and on whose behalf, before it touches enterprise systems.
- Authorisation: determining whether an agent has the authority to perform a specific action, not just whether it is able to.
- Human oversight: keeping people in the loop for consequential decisions as autonomy increases.
- Operational boundaries: clearly defined limits that matter more as AI systems move from generating information to independently executing actions.