Dubai International Airport — the world's busiest international air travel hub — is on pace to attract a record 96 million passengers in 2025. At this bustling aviation nerve center, with hundreds of flights and thousands of people in motion at any given moment, even minor operational inefficiencies can add up fast. 

“It's $100 per delayed minute,” said Bilal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and CEO of 1001 AI, a startup based between London and Dubai that aims to build an “AI-native operating system” for critical industries — software designed to analyze real-time operational data and make automatic decisions, from rerouting airport fuel trucks to reallocating construction crews.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Abu-Ghazaleh, formerly a director at Silicon Valley’s Scale AI, explained how he spotted an opportunity to help Gulf industries become smarter. By automating complex workflows, 1001 AI estimates it can reduce inefficiencies worth over $10 billion across airports, ports, construction and the energy sector in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar alone.

Investors are open to the pitch: On Oct. 20, the company — barely two months old — announced $9 million in seed funding led by US venture funds including CIV, General Catalyst and Lux Capital. Other backers participating in the round included Amjad Masad, CEO of rising AI software developer Replit; Damac’s Amira Sajwani; and Saudi investor Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud.