Schneider Electric has urged governments, businesses and industry partners across the Middle East and Africa to strengthen collaboration to accelerate the development of AI-ready infrastructure, as the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence creates new demands for intelligent, resilient and sustainable energy systems.

The firm made the call after concluding its Innovation Summit Middle East and Africa 2026 in Abu Dhabi, where more than 2,500 government officials, energy professionals, industry analysts, customers, partners, students and media representatives gathered to examine how the convergence of energy, artificial intelligence and industrial software is reshaping the region’s future.

Held under the theme “Advancing Energy Tech to Power Intelligence and Resilience,” the two-day summit focused on a growing shift in the energy transition: from simply decarbonising energy supply to building intelligent, connected and resilient systems that support AI-driven economic growth.

Schneider Electric said the shift towards AI-driven economic activity is increasing the need for energy systems and industrial infrastructure that can operate more intelligently, efficiently and resiliently.

MEANWHILE, a Mission-Critical engineering specialist, Raja Kumara Swamy Donthula, has explained that the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is placing new demands on data centres, with electricity, cooling, control systems and infrastructure reliability becoming increasingly important to facilities supporting intensive computing workloads.

Donthula said that as computing requirements increase, engineers must consider how the different systems supporting a data centre work together throughout its lifecycle, from design and construction to commissioning and operations.

He noted that modern data centres depend on electrical distribution, standby generation, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, cooling infrastructure, controls, life-safety systems and communications infrastructure.

According to Donthula, the availability of dependable power, cooling and connectivity will remain important to the development of digital infrastructure.