DAVOS, Switzerland — Demand for edge AI is rising in the Middle East, driven by a young population increasingly favoring on-device data storage over remote data centers, the Mideast head of one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies told Al-Monitor. 

“My prediction is AI will go to the edge, to all kinds of devices,” Wassim Chourbaji, Qualcomm's president for the Middle East and Africa, said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Edge AI over cloud

Edge AI is the deployment of AI on local devices, such as cameras or smartphones, rather than relying on centralized cloud services. Real-world examples include Apple's voice assistant, Siri, and Amazon's Alexa, as well as autonomous vehicles. Unlike cloud AI, which is based on servers in remote data centers, edge AI enables real-time decision-making, enhanced privacy and lower bandwidth usage, as its data is stored on a local device. Cloud AI needs a constant connection, while edge AI can work offline. Edge is faster and more secure than cloud AI, but it is often limited in capacity.