Lean and Agile Middle East Summit 2025

Welcome from Lean and Agile Middle East and Heriot-Watt University Dubai

Speaker Pitches - Each speaker gets 30 seconds to tell the audience why they need to attend their session

Artificial intelligence is not only transforming business processes but also fundamentally challenging traditional leadership concepts. In this groundbreaking keynote, leadership expert Boris Gloger explores the complex challenges and opportunities that arise for leaders in the context of AI.

Drawing on Gartner’s latest forecasts on the “Augmented Executive” and recent research on AI-supported decision-making, Gloger illuminates the evolving role of leaders. He demonstrates how AI takes over repetitive management tasks, creating space for valuable human-centered leadership.

Simultaneously, Gloger warns against uncritical faith in technology. Building on his insights from Self-Organization Needs Leadership, he argues that in the AI era, human qualities such as empathy, ethical judgment, and the ability to create meaning are indispensable.

Gloger explains how agile leadership principles can synergistically interact with AI systems to create resilient, adaptive organizations. He shows how leaders can design an ecosystem where human creativity and machine efficiency reinforce each other.

Key Topics of the Keynote:

• Realigning leadership roles in AI-driven organizations

• Ethical challenges in using AI for leadership decisions

• Promoting employee engagement and continuous learning in the AI era

• Creating a corporate culture that unites innovation and responsible AI use

• Practical strategies for integrating AI tools into agile leadership approaches

Experience a profound, forward-looking keynote that combines technological understanding with decades of leadership expertise. Gain critical insights to redefine your company and leadership role for the AI era – with a balanced approach that harmoniously unites technological innovation and human-centered leadership.

In an era of increasing complexity, Agile frameworks have become rigid constraints rather than adaptive ways of working. This keynote challenges practitioners and leaders to transcend certification-driven methodologies and rediscover the true essence of agility: responding to complexity with human creativity, complexity thinking and genuine value delivery. Looking at real-life examples, we'll dive deep into why some Agile approaches are failing, how big companies are systematically crushing innovation, and what it truly takes to help organizations reimagine agile as a dynamic, generative approach to navigating unpredictable landscapes.