The Human Future: AI, Happiness and How We Will Live, Work and GatherMo Gawdat with David Macadam
Artificial intelligence is arriving faster than most organisations can absorb, and the leaders in this room will decide what it changes about the places where people shop, work and spend time together.
TAKEAWAYS
1Mo Gawdat said retail in the region has leaned on dopamine-driven excitement and awe, which fades and demands ever higher stakes; he sees a large opening for calmer mall experiences built on community and human connection.
2Replacing staff with robots treats efficiency as the only goal and turns a mall into Amazon, he warned.
3Protect the core business but run small, cheap experiments with consumers, as Google X did; Gawdat suggests business leaders spend about an hour a week tracking major AI trends and review how they apply it every three months.
The Human Future: AI, Happiness and How We Will Live, Work and GatherMo Gawdat with David Macadam
Artificial intelligence is arriving faster than most organisations can absorb, and the leaders in this room will decide what it changes about the places where people shop, work and spend time together.
TAKEAWAYS
1Mo Gawdat said retail in the region has leaned on dopamine-driven excitement and awe, which fades and demands ever higher stakes; he sees a large opening for calmer mall experiences built on community and human connection.
2Replacing staff with robots treats efficiency as the only goal and turns a mall into Amazon, he warned.
3Protect the core business but run small, cheap experiments with consumers, as Google X did; Gawdat suggests business leaders spend about an hour a week tracking major AI trends and review how they apply it every three months.
Retail Congress MENA (RCM) is the annual congress of the Middle East Council of Shopping Centres & Retailers (MECSR) for the region’s shopping centre owners, developers, operators, retailers, brands and the partners who serve them. Each edition brings together a two-day conference, an exhibition, hosted deal-making meetings and the MECSR MENA Awards gala.
Latest edition
Retail Congress MENA 2026 (RCM26) took place on 5 and 6 October 2026 at The Ritz-Carlton, DIFC, Dubai, under the theme “Level Up: Next-Gen Leadership”. It welcomed delegates from 43 countries.
