Sam Altman argues that the world must accept certain risks associated with artificial intelligence

The Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Omar Al Olama, announced on Tuesday, October 6, that thanks to the multiplication of individual workers' capabilities through artificial intelligence agents, companies worth tens of millions or even billions of dollars could emerge, managed by a single person.

Speaking at the AI Everything Abu Dhabi event, Al Olama noted that the UAE can utilize AI agents to overcome limitations associated with a relatively small population and to compete economically with much larger markets.

He emphasized that such companies would appear—multi-million or billion-dollar entities consisting of one person and their agents. According to him, AI agents are capable of 'multiplying' human abilities, skills, and influence, opening up opportunities for countries like the UAE to compete with markets having hundreds of millions of people or more.

Al Olama added that if these agents are given the advantage of multiplying their capabilities, skills, and influence, the country can compete economically with larger players. He pointed out that this shift is already happening in workplaces in the UAE, citing the business in Abu Dhabi he visited this week, where over ten percent of the staff are AI agents.

These agents performed tasks at 'multiple speeds,' simultaneously increasing productivity and decision-making quality. These statements came amid the UAE's aggressive move towards agentic AI in both public and private sectors. In April, the UAE Cabinet approved frameworks for implementing agentic AI in 50 percent of government sectors and operations within two years.

In June, the UAE established the AI and Data Office, where Al Olama was appointed chairman. This office is responsible for national directions and priorities in AI, data, and digital government.

Al Olama suggested that this transformation would extend not only to traditional business but also to the entertainment sector, as AI could potentially allow individuals to manage studios that previously required large teams and significant budgets. He noted that historically, content creation in the entertainment sphere has been concentrated in specific regions, such as Hollywood, Bollywood in India, or South Korea.

He sincerely believes that if people are given the opportunity to use these tools, refine, and improve their skills, widespread adoption will occur. In his view, the first market to dominate in AI-generated entertainment content will be the one that adopts this technology most rapidly. Al Olama mentioned seeing advertisements for AI-generated films and series on Instagram and Snapchat, which could quickly attract viewers.

He described a model where small teams or individuals use AI to write scripts, generate multiple plot variations, and quickly release content. As examples of using AI for rapid entertainment content variation, he cited themes such as aliens, dinosaurs, spies, and ninjas. He concluded that the barrier to entry has become so low that we will soon see entertainment studios where one person can create world-changing content in unprecedented ways.

Acknowledging the need to adhere to national restrictions, he also stated that this revolution is starting right now. Al Olama warned that countries and individuals who refuse to engage with AI risk falling behind, arguing that mere regulation of the technology without its adoption will not protect economies from its consequences. He stressed that in 99 percent of cases, inaction will have a negative effect, and workers may lose their jobs if they do not adapt, while countries refusing AI risk missing economic opportunities.

In his opinion, the action plan is simple: every person who wishes to participate in this wave must understand this technology, know how to use it, and benefit from it. Therefore, the UAE is pursuing an aggressive upskilling strategy in AI, including training 80,000 civil servants to become 'superusers' capable of creating agents and utilizing AI models. Furthermore, he announced that the UAE, in collaboration with Microsoft, is preparing to announce next month the conclusion of a campaign aimed at training one million people to become 'AI super-drivers,' and that more ambitious programs will be unveiled.

Al Olama also mentioned visiting an AI festival in Kazakhstan, where one person created a film or content that would traditionally require a large team and potentially millions of dollars. He noted that such tools can change how people express themselves and create new opportunities for content monetization without needing to become social media influencers.

Responding to the question of how the UAE can compete with established AI hubs like San Francisco and London, Al Olama explained that the country's strategy is not to build the world's largest AI laboratories. He stated that the greatest economic and social benefits from major technologies often go to the countries that successfully adopt and apply them, rather than those where they were first invented. He clarified that the UAE does not plan to compete with San Francisco in building labs but aims to be the fastest in the market so that countries and cities adopting AI can most effectively improve the quality of life.

The broader state strategy of the UAE is already moving in this direction, as the government aims to implement agentic AI in half of its sectors and operations within two years. Al Olama specified that the measure of success for the UAE in AI goes beyond assessing company valuation or productivity gains. His measure of success is the positive change in the lives of the greatest number of people.

He noted that the government considers not only productivity and economic results but also whether the implementation of AI in public and related sectors genuinely improves people's lives. He linked public acceptance of AI to people being able to see tangible benefits from its use. If people see that every time AI is mentioned or implemented, their quality of life improves, their reaction will be completely different. He added that the UAE ranks first in optimism regarding AI in many reports and surveys, and maintaining this status requires ensuring AI has a positive impact on people's lives.

The Minister also indicated that the rapid development of AI forces governments to reconsider intellectual property protection. He observed that traditional IP systems were designed to protect human inventors from copying their work, but they have never before encountered a non-human system capable of generating novel outcomes. He believes that now is the right time to revise rights and protective measures to align with modern realities.

He mentioned examples of AI systems generating complex engineering designs for rockets and electric motors that could form the basis of commercially valuable companies. He also noted that the nature of data used to train AI models is changing, asserting that synthetic data generated by AI now constitutes the overwhelming majority of training data. He stated: 'AI creates, and AI consumes,' and that this will become the norm of the future.

In Al Olama's view, governments need to develop a system that protects creators while encouraging people to use AI to achieve positive results. He pointed to the dilemma in advanced AI regulation: innovators seek to push technological boundaries, while regulators must protect people from potential harm. He insisted that these parties should not operate in isolation but should foster mutual exchange of ideas.

The UAE employs an approach where innovators are brought into the regulatory thought process, and regulators are encouraged to think like innovators. Al Olama also discussed the UAE's approach to using AI during elections: candidates must register the use of AI, limit it to cases concerning themselves rather than harming others, and document every use within specified timelines. These rules are intended to prevent the spread of disinformation or blackmail using AI while ensuring accountability.

Responding to a student's question about how young people with ideas can gain government attention without connections, Al Olama asserted that AI has made the current generation unusually powerful. He said that today students can access knowledge and intelligence tools without needing to find individual experts or conduct lengthy research before realizing an idea. He urged youth to use AI tools to build ideas that others might initially deem impossible.

Regarding collaboration with the government from socially impactful organizations, Al Olama advised governments to be accessible and receptive to new ideas. He pointed to existing channels of interaction, such as AI Camp and UAE Codes platforms, as well as incubators and accelerators. He concluded that the government must embrace new ideas, support, and welcome those who wish to help it evolve, as the state is constantly evolving and must work with external organizations for rapid response to changes.

Microsoft is implementing a change in the Windows 11 File Explorer aimed at optimizing access to certain system folders. The functionality will introduce the recognition of the tilde symbol (~) in the address bar as a direct shortcut to the user directory.

With this new feature, users will be able to replace lengthy paths, such as «C:\Users\UserName\AppData», with a shortened form, using only «~\AppData».

Although Windows 11 already offers several keyboard shortcuts for navigation and control, the tilde operation differs, requiring the symbol to be specifically typed into the File Explorer's address bar.

By typing only the «~» symbol, the system will instantly direct the user to the profile folder, which is usually located at «C:\Users\UserName». Furthermore, this symbol can be combined with other folder names to shorten access routes.

This behavior resembles Unix-based operating systems, where the tilde already serves as a reference to the home directory. The shortcut also aids in accessing the profile, since the directory name does not always match the name displayed in the Windows account; in some scenarios, the system uses part of the email address to identify the directory.

It is important to note that on keyboards configured for Brazilian Portuguese, the tilde may operate as an accent key. In such cases, it may be necessary to press the corresponding key followed by the spacebar to insert the symbol individually into the address bar.

Currently, Microsoft is still in the testing phase with this new shortcut, meaning its operation may undergo adjustments before being widely released. At the moment, the functionality is only present in test versions of the system, without a defined date for its arrival on all Windows 11 computers.

This shortcut integrates a series of modifications that Microsoft has been promoting in Windows 11. Recently, the company also revised the system context menu to make it faster and more customizable.

Additionally, Microsoft seeks to reduce loading time and simplify the Explorer interface. Tecnoblog had previously reported on Microsoft's efforts to make the File Explorer faster and less complicated, including changes to menu organization and the tool's loading process.

The Windows 11 26H2 version was officially released at the end of September and incorporates various usability and performance improvements for the File Explorer.

BBD's experience in developing enterprise software has shown that systems rarely fail due to a lack of features. More often, they malfunction because they demand too much from users. Numerous fields, solutions, and steps may make sense within the system but not align with the actual workflow.

Complexity slows down workflows, increases training time, places additional strain on customer service channels like call centers, provokes user errors, and causes friction. Humanized design offers a practical method to reduce this complexity by aligning systems with how people actually work, think, and make decisions.

By using User Experience (UX) research, user journey mapping, and usability testing, teams can eliminate unnecessary steps, reduce cognitive load, and simplify workflows. The result is higher adoption, reduced training and support costs, fewer errors, and increased operational efficiency.

What Humanized Design Means in Practice

Humanized design focuses on real users, not idealized processes. It studies how people make decisions under pressure, move between tasks, hesitate, and encounter obstacles.

This is especially important in an enterprise environment where systems carry high cognitive demands. Stakeholders may be subject matter experts acting with the best intentions, yet user needs and inclusivity can get lost among end results. Users also face workflows saturated with exceptions, multiple handoffs, compliance requirements, and operational risks. A clean interface alone is insufficient to solve these problems.

Good enterprise UX facilitates getting work done correctly and confidently, leading to faster task completion, fewer errors, reduced abandonment, and stronger adoption. In this sense, humanized design is about designing for performance, not aesthetic perfection.

UX Research: Simplifying Through Understanding Real Work

One of the most common causes of complexity is assumption. Internal teams may believe they know user needs, but stakeholder opinions and process diagrams do not always reflect daily work.

Research methods such as contextual interviews, task analysis, and observing users in real settings reveal workarounds, redundant steps, overloaded screens, and features that yield little practical value. Complexity also arises from building systems around organizational structures rather than around users' mental models. Users should not have to think the way the business process modeled it. The system must reflect how a person performs and understands the task.

User Journey Mapping: Identifying Friction Across the Entire Workflow

Enterprise users rarely stay within a single system. Tasks may span various applications, teams, approvals, and external data. User journey mapping helps uncover friction across the entire workflow, including system dependencies, decision points, breaks, manual processes, data re-entry, unclear status changes, and weak error recovery paths.

A task may be technically feasible but still complex if the path is fragmented, unclear, or dependent on human intervention. Mapping makes these pain points visible and promotes better prioritization. It can also reveal outdated business rules and opportunities for automation where policies previously prohibited it.

Usability Testing: Eliminating Friction Before It Becomes a Problem

In enterprise environments, usability testing should be viewed as risk mitigation, not an optional feature. Well-conducted testing shows whether people can successfully complete tasks, how long tasks take, where errors occur, and how quickly they learn the system. These are operational signals, not abstract UX metrics.

Internal teams may overlook issues because they understand the terminology, logic, and assumed path. Users bring partial knowledge, time pressure, and different expectations. Testing reveals this gap. Finding problems before product release is cheaper than fixing them later through support tickets, rework, additional documentation, or training. Conducting tests can also help teams assess quality in a structured and repeatable manner.

How Simplification Creates Measurable Business Value

The business case becomes clear when simplification is linked to outcomes: improved adoption—systems that are easier to understand are used more consistently. Tools like Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics should be used with clearly defined measurement goals early in the project to increase accuracy.

Reduced training and change costs: intuitive workflows shorten adaptation time and decrease reliance on manuals, formal training, and support groups.

Fewer errors and less rework: clearer workflows, better default settings, and stricter constraints help prevent mistakes, reducing corrections, escalations, and wasted effort.

Operational efficiency at scale: small UX improvements accumulate across large teams and high transaction volumes. Seconds saved on routine tasks, or a slight reduction in error rates, can create significant value over time.

Thus, humanized design must be part of a broader conversation about software delivery and works best when integrated into software development, rather than being added after key decisions have been made.

Common Mistakes That Complicate Enterprise Applications

Complexity is often introduced incrementally. Teams may design for edge cases until the core workflow becomes overloaded, exposing the system's internal logic to users, adding features instead of prioritizing, or viewing redesigns as visual updates without addressing the core friction.

Gathering and analyzing existing data helps teams make decisions and ask the right questions from the start. Skipping research to save time usually postpones complexity to later stages, where fixing it becomes more expensive.

Simplification requires discipline: it demands protecting the main task flow, being selective about what is exposed, and designing based on actual behavior, not internal assumptions.

Integrating Humanized Design into Enterprise Solution Delivery

Reducing complexity is not a one-time event. UX must be involved early, before the architecture solidifies and assumptions become costly to change. Design should happen in parallel with engineering, and usability metrics should be serious success criteria, with design decisions tied to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Enterprise systems evolve, and complexity can creep back in. The strongest results are achieved when teams continuously test, refine, and simplify within ongoing delivery.

Enterprise UX is a competitive advantage. The best enterprise systems appear simple not because the work is simple, but because the design is thoughtful. They guide users through complex tasks with clarity, reduce friction, and support better business performance. For BBD, this is the value of humanized design. It improves usability, reduces unnecessary effort, and helps enterprise software function the way people need it to. Over time, this impacts adoption, cost, reliability, and operational performance.