At Web Summit Qatar in Doha (held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), February 1–4, 2026), LigaData hosted a well-attended panel on AI Regulation & Governance, bringing together perspectives from the private sector, Chinese investors, Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council (QRDI), and a leading technology vendor.The session was moderated by Bassel Ojjeh, CEO of LigaData, and featured Jaime Charaf guiding the discussion toward practical, executive-ready approaches for scaling AI responsibly, grounded in trust, accountability, and measurable controls.What the panel covered1) Early adopter vs. fast follower: where should leaders position their organizations in AI? Panelists debated the tradeoffs between moving early (capturing advantage, attracting talent, shaping standards) versus holding back initially (reducing risk, learning from others’ failures, and deploying with clearer guardrails). The consensus: the “right” position depends on sector risk, regulatory exposure, and the organization’s ability to operationalize governance, not just experiment with models.2) Turning AI governance into measurable outcomes and measurable compliance A key theme was that AI governance can’t live only in policies and principles, it has to be auditable and outcome-based. Discussion focused on defining governance in terms executives can track: control coverage, exception management, model performance drift, data lineage, and documented decision rights.Quality gates: from operations to AI A standout example from the energy sector illustrated how quality gates are used to enforce process integrity, then mapped directly to AI:
- Quality gates for AI data (fitness-for-purpose checks, bias/representativeness checks, lineage, access controls)
- Quality gates for AI outputs (validation thresholds, monitoring, escalation paths, and accountability when models deviate)
Why it matteredThe panel reinforced a shared view: responsible AI isn’t a brake on innovation, it’s what makes innovation scalable. By aligning investors, operators, and ecosystem stakeholders around measurable governance, Qatar can accelerate adoption while protecting trust, an area Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council (QRDI) has also been actively advancing through national AI-focused ecosystem initiatives.
