nybl, the science-based artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer, and Lenovo, the world’s largest personal computer (PC) maker, announced their pact to join their software and hardware respectively on the opening day of Gitex Global on Monday.

The 42nd edition of Gitex is being held at the Dubai World Trade Centre and the exhibition will run until Friday, with a raft of major announcements being made daily.

Lenovo comprises the biggest AI-hardware portfolio on the market — from workstations for data scientists to gateways for Internet of Things (IoT), to powerful graphics processing units (GPU)-accelerated Edge servers all the way to high-performance computing. Lenovo has the highest number of supercomputers in the ‘Fortune Global 500’ list.

The next series of global technological breakthroughs are going to occur through the elimination of the technical and skill barriers needed to access world-leading AI. It’s what nybl refers to as the democratisation of AI, and it aligns perfectly with Lenovo’s vision of ‘Smarter technology for all’.

The partnership has already begun to bear fruit, supporting the deployment of an oil and gas solution on Lenovo Edge servers, and a comprehensive AI-enabled security platform for facilities totalling 750,000 square metres.

In line with its work to support the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) goals, nybl has also leveraged its AI using Lenovo Edge AI servers, managing air quality, energy usage and security to promote healthier, safer and more efficient facilities. Lenovo Edge AI is used to adapt the final product to the area-specific conditions of the individual user and to lower power consumption. Lenovo’s Edge servers are packaged as a full plug-and-play solution, which removes the need for a rack and auxiliary system setup.

Without Lenovo Edge, the end-user would have to install and configure every device to communicate and rely on cloud communication. Edge allows clients to deploy a self-configuring self-connecting system. This removes the need for security and technical deployment issues, thus allowing for cost savings on cloud, infrastructure and manpower.

Nicholas Borsotto, Worldwide Manager for AI alliances at Lenovo, said: “Our focus is to assemble the best-of-breed AI partners from around the world, supporting them in their journey to scale and collaborating to support our clients’ journey to scale AI in their companies. nybl stood out for the strength of their bespoke AI services, their level of expertise with Edge technology and real-life deployment, and the scale of their ambition to tackle global challenges using end-to-end AI solutions.”

Noor Alnahhas, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of nybl, said: “We want to be world leaders in AI platforms, tools and solutions. Having the right partners who are aligned is crucial. We fit exceptionally well with Lenovo across all three pillars. We share a common vision for the industry and, as a result, we’ve hit the ground running, which has been very exciting. Lenovo’s Edge AI servers and our AI tools are a match made in heaven in terms of enabling robust, cost-effective performance.”

The venture is aligned with efforts to support Lenovo AI Innovators — an ecosystem of AI partners focused on providing a one-stop shop for customers looking to deploy AI with confidence, and even more importantly, to scale AI in their businesses.

Nybl’s offerings focus on industries (including oil and gas; healthcare; physical and cyber-security; fintech; and retail) that have stringent data security and compliance requirements, meaning that many prefer not to deploy on cloud. The partnership between nybl and Lenovo allows for the on-premises deployment of AI solutions, providing a distinct competitive advantage.

The partnership will allow Lenovo and nybl to create customised solutions in a customer-first approach, creating advanced AI ecosystems for a variety of use-case scenarios.

“Through the partnership with Lenovo,” Alnahhas explained, “we have been introduced to class-leading AI providers with whom we can partner to increase the capabilities of our ecosystem. We have perfected our platform-as-a-service and solution components and adding functionality in a modular fashion allows us to give our customers the best-available AI ecosystem through a cost-effective model.”