The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is forcing organisations to reconsider how they manage cyber risk, while the prospect of quantum computing is creating a longer-term challenge that businesses can no longer afford to ignore, according to Aleksandar Valjarevic, CEO of Help AG, the cyber security arm of e& enterprise.
Valjarevic believes the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is well positioned to address these challenges, pointing to years of government investment and regulation that have established cyber security as a foundation for digital transformation. However, he believes that organisations must now balance immediate security requirements with preparations for technologies that could fundamentally change the threat landscape.
“We are very lucky as an organisation, Help AG, and as a cyber security industry that the government here realised years back that cyber security is an enablement factor for pushing the economy to the next level for the digital transformation [and now] AI-powered economy,” he said.
Government regulation, combined with the development of a wider cyber security ecosystem, has helped to sustain investment in the sector, he added. “We can say today that investments in cyber security in the region are at a very healthy level.”
Recent security challenges have also tested the resilience of the region’s cyber defences. Nevertheless, Valjarevic said the industry must keep innovating rather than assume current investment levels are sufficient.
AI agents introduce new security challenges
Help AG is expanding its focus on artificial intelligence as organisations increasingly deploy the technology across their operations. Valjarevic said the company developed more than 20 AI agents over the past six months, with applications spanning its internal operations and its response to emerging cyber threats.
The challenge, however, extends beyond selecting the right security tools. As AI agents take on more operational responsibilities, organisations must understand how these systems interact, including when agents operated by service providers need to collaborate with those deployed by customers.
“What we are focusing on today is not just having the right security tools and agents,” Valjarevic explained. “We are looking at the process, and we are looking at how we connect agents doing different tasks and even agents from our side and agents from the client side. This is the collaboration between different agents and humans. And this is where we need to move very, very fast.”
The growing use of autonomous systems introduces questions around identity, access privileges and data protection. Organisations must establish which agents are authorised to perform particular tasks, what information they can access and how their actions are controlled.
Valjarevic said the industry already has the principles and technology required to address these risks, but organisations must apply them consistently to AI rather than treating the technology as an exception.
“The same zero trust we apply to humans, we shouldn’t give favour to AI,” he said. This means applying appropriate authentication, authorisation and data controls to AI agents, just as organisations would for human users.
The approach is particularly important as businesses decide where AI should be deployed and which workloads require additional protection. Valjarevic compared the current situation with the expansion of cloud computing a decade ago, when organisations had to reassess which workloads belonged in the cloud and how to secure them.
“Same challenges are now in front of the CISOs and CIOs, understanding which areas need AI and need agents,” he added.
For security leaders, the priority is to develop a clear understanding of the organisation’s threat and vulnerability landscape, its business requirements and its intended use cases. There is no universal solution that can be applied identically across every organisation.
“Unfortunately, there is no magic stick, and each organisation needs to look at their own threat landscape, their vulnerability landscape, their business and their use cases and have a tailored approach, and especially around prioritisation of what they are doing.”
Although the prospect of AI-driven attacks and autonomous systems operating at scale is attracting growing attention, Valjarevic remains optimistic about the technology’s potential.
He compared the transition to AI with earlier technological advances, including the invention of fire, electricity and the move from copper cables to fibre-optic networks. “This is a very big jump, but we can get great benefits out of it. We can build the future,” he said.
Quantum readiness needs to start with discovery
Alongside the immediate challenges posed by AI, Valjarevic is urging organisations to begin preparing for the security implications of quantum computing.
Help AG has introduced Quantum 360, an initiative focused on helping customers understand and prepare for the transition towards quantum-resistant technologies. Valjarevic expects quantum computing to trigger a significant shift in cyber security over the coming years, arguing that organisations should begin identifying their exposure before the technology becomes a more immediate concern. “It’s coming, it’s around the corner,” he said.
According to him, the UAE’s cyber security ecosystem has a window of approximately six months to a year to undertake this discovery work, followed by two to three years to map out the deployment of quantum-resistant technology. The process is intended to establish which systems depend on cryptography that could be affected by advances in quantum computing, enabling security teams to plan a phased transition rather than respond under pressure later.
“In some areas like encryption, we can offer quantum-resistant technology immediately,” he said.
The challenge is not simply to identify a new encryption technology and deploy it. Organisations first need an inventory of their cryptographic assets, an understanding of where those assets are used and a plan for replacing or upgrading vulnerable components.
Valjarevic expects quantum computing to have consequences beyond cryptography. As well as creating new security risks, he believes it could accelerate the development and use of AI and automation, further changing how organisations operate and defend their systems.
Sovereign AI depends on sovereign cyber security
The UAE’s ambitions around digital sovereignty and sovereign AI are another important driver of Help AG’s strategy. For Valjarevic, cyber security is not an additional layer to be introduced once sovereign platforms have been developed. It is a prerequisite for establishing and operating them.
“Sovereignty came to cyber security and to Help AG a lot before it existed as a term,” he said, adding that the company’s systems and solutions had been built around sovereign requirements and national priorities for many years. “For us, this is just now taking the next step, and cyber security plays an enablement role because you cannot have sovereignty without security.”
Help AG is accelerating its work on sovereign cyber security solutions in line with national priorities, while supporting the wider e& group’s development of sovereign AI platforms.
Valjarevic said the company would also continue strengthening its relationships across the group, which operates in more than 18 markets, and extend its focus beyond the UAE. Its strategy remains in three principles: people and talent, customer centricity and excellence, and innovation. “We stay committed to those,” he added.
Looking ahead, Valjarevic expects AI to become increasingly embedded across business operations, extending beyond security teams and into a much wider range of organisational processes.
He also anticipates that quantum computing will become a more prominent consideration for cyber security leaders over the next two to three years, creating new requirements for security architectures while opening opportunities for further automation.
The convergence of these technologies will make it increasingly difficult to treat emerging risks as isolated projects. Organisations will need to account for how AI, identity, data protection, cryptography and automation interact across their environments.
