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00:00So I'm going to put it on a firm flat surface and I want you to stand on it.
00:04Something happens to it, I'm not going to play.
00:07Okay, you can't feel it. One feet here, one foot here and sitting there, yeah.
00:13Okay, nothing is breaking, which is good.
00:15Yeah, I always want to hear you. We're not hearing anything.
00:17Okay, now I'm going to look at the display.
00:19Okay.
00:25Wow.
00:25I'm working.
00:27Nothing broke.
00:28Yeah, so this is not something that happens usually in a bird life, right?
00:32But let me give you one more example of the durability.
00:34Oh my God, wow.
00:36So how often does this happen?
00:39Not regularly, but probably when you've got gigs,
00:43when you're in a cafe, when you're in a flight,
00:47something like this might happen.
00:48So it's got spill resistant layer underneath the keyboard.
00:51Oh my.
00:51So it is not reaching the motherboard.
00:53Hello and welcome to Khaleesh Times.
00:58Joining me today is Mohit Bakhtar, as we dive deep into how AI and the new expert books
01:04are powering the future of work.
01:07Mohit Bakhtar is an accomplished business leader with over 16 years of experience driving growth
01:12across product, channel, and enterprise sales.
01:15As the commercial head of UAE and GCC of Asus Business.
01:19Mohit, thank you so much for being with us here today.
01:20My pleasure. Glad to be here.
01:22AI is reshaping how businesses and institutions operate today.
01:27From Asus's perspective, what are the biggest challenges companies in the UAE and GCC are facing
01:33and how is AI helping solve them?
01:36So like we rightly said, AI has become ubiquitous right now, right?
01:38AI is being applied across all verticals, all geographies, and UAE and GCC in particular
01:45are embracing them like nothing else.
01:47Here actually, the public sector is leading when it comes to adoption.
01:50So yes, with AI adoption, there's a lot of new benefits as well as
01:53new challenges that come along with it.
01:55If you just look at how you work in office or I work in office, you know,
01:58we are inundated with a lot of emails, a lot of meetings, meeting minutes,
02:03a lot of RFPs since we work in B2B space.
02:06AI is making reading all of that, going through all of that, and summarizing all of that much,
02:10much simpler and faster.
02:12As a result of that, we are becoming way more productive.
02:15Of course, we need to get our hands dirty, we need to test the tools,
02:17we need to make sure there are no hallucinations, there are guardrails around it,
02:20and there is a quality testing.
02:22Second, as we all know, this region, especially UAE, is a melting pot of many,
02:26many cultures, right?
02:27So with the help of AI, you know, we can have real-time translations
02:30if you're having a video call with each other, a conferencing call.
02:33So some of these unique technologies, solutions,
02:36and the applications in the business world is really adding value.
02:39And there are many more to come.
02:41The new ASUS experts integrate AI tools and smarter performance features.
02:46Can you walk us through how these AI capabilities actually enhance daily workflows
02:51for professionals, students, and educators?
02:55Absolutely. So ASUS, when we started our business division about five, six years back,
02:58our primary focus was to take care of or to build solutions for educators,
03:03you know, as well as public sector. So public sector and education has been very close to our heart,
03:08and it is visible in our portfolio as well. If you look at our business portfolio of devices,
03:14of course, we have one amazing device here, cutting edge, but we also have a full portfolio that is made
03:18for education, for students. So it's not just about the AI solutions that we have. Of course,
03:23we have AI Expert Meet, which does everything that I just told you, in terms of summarizing meetings,
03:28in terms of transcription, in terms of translation, in terms of having your subtitles in different languages on the go.
03:35Of course, we have 50 plus languages right now, and more languages are being added to that.
03:40But also in terms of our education lineup, we've got devices which are tailor-made for students.
03:46So they have rubberized edges, for example. So kids, you know, they might drop it, might be more accident prone in general.
03:53So we make sure that the education or the learning part is not disrupted over there.
03:56When it comes to professionals, it is very important to make sure that we are, because as the AI is advancing,
04:02so are the cybersecurity threats. They are also becoming way more advanced than what we could have
04:07imagined probably three years back. So cybersecurity had a massive demand or spike during COVID because
04:15everybody started working from outside the organizations or most of us. Similarly, right now,
04:20with the advent of AI and these massively sophisticated agents that can really create
04:27those malware and try to find new ways to attack much, much faster than humans could as well. Plus,
04:33there are agents who are attacking the AI agents sitting in our network. So it's becoming like a two-way battle
04:40for which, and that's what Asus is trying to do with our expert book series. So our AI native devices make sure that we are running AI
04:48in the device and not a lot of data or any data, depending upon the organization policy, is going into the cloud.
04:55That ensures data privacy as well as security. These are some of the features that we are building in,
05:00which are going to make organizations as well as education institutions future ready.
05:05So basically, the AI is going to be integrated within the laptop itself.
05:09Absolutely. So we've got this device, for example, it has got a CPU. So traditionally, our devices used to have a central processing unit,
05:16a processor and a GPU. GPU graphic processing unit was always there. It doesn't have to be like a discrete graphic,
05:23like a 2GB, 4GB, 8GB capacity. Even integrated graphic always used to be there. So now on top of that,
05:30with AI coming in, what has happened is we've got something called NPU, Neural Processing Unit.
05:34And that is the one that is really making use of this AI applications running natively on the device
05:41and utilizing less battery power, enhancing your longevity of the device as well. So yes,
05:47AI is coming into the device. And I think that is something that a lot of IT managers, directors,
05:51CIOs, CTOs are also keeping in mind and really evaluating within their environment.
05:55ASUS is known for pushing innovation, whether it's ultra light designs or advanced thermal engineering.
06:02What are some of the key innovations in the expert book line that you're personally excited about?
06:07So like you rightly said, ASUS has been pushing the boundaries, innovating, combining engineering,
06:13along with innovation, keeping the end user use case in mind for decades now. You know,
06:18if you go back in history, some of the industry first form factors were introduced by ASUS.
06:23Now, after having, you know, becoming number one in gaming, a number one or two,
06:27depending on the geography we speak about on the consumer side, we decided about five,
06:32six years back that why are we leaving more than 50% of the worldwide PC client market,
06:36which is B2B, which is commercial. Why are we leaving that? Because in terms of whatever we
06:41are putting inside our devices, I mean, we are the first motherboard manufacturer, for example,
06:46back in 1989. So we've got everything, all the key components. We do rigorous quality testing,
06:51which I will talk about later as well. So why are we leaving that business section out there?
06:56So we started designing business devices last five, six years from the ground up,
07:01in terms of the kind of testing we are doing, in terms of the kind of features we are building in,
07:05not only aesthetically, but also in terms of the resilience when it comes to security,
07:10security while working, security while on the cloud, etc. So there are a lot of features that
07:14are coming through. We've got a fantastic new lineup that is going to be launched in the next six months,
07:20upcoming six months, again, in line with the whole AI theme. And a lot of, if you ask about my personal
07:26favorite, I think Asus is always pushing and being first to the market with any latest technology out there.
07:33To give you an idea, the category called Copilot plus PC, where the NPU that I just spoke about,
07:38Neural Processing Unit, it has got different powers as well, different ranges. So it is not counted in
07:44terms of gigahertz, like what CPU or GPUs was counted in. It is counted in terms of TOPS,
07:50which is trillion operations per second. So a device with NPU TOPS of 40 plus is called a Copilot
07:57plus device. Copilot, as you know, is one of the Microsoft solutions, inbuilt solution for office
08:03use AI solution. So this device was the first to market back in last year, which was way ahead of
08:10its time. And it was really, it got a lot of end users pleasantly surprised and the use cases became,
08:17kept on growing. Today, where we have these devices in the hands of our customers,
08:22the reviews are fantastic. The productivity gains are massive and they're able to actually calculate
08:27their ROI as well. So some of these and more of these innovations and my personal favorites are going to
08:32keep coming in the next six months in our new lineups as well. Reliability is a major decision
08:37factor for IT departments. Expert books come with MIL, SCD durability and long battery life.
08:45How does this translate into lower costs for ownership or organizations? That's a very important
08:50point. When we differentiate between the consumer use case versus a business use case, because when we
08:55are buying our consumer or home device, you know, for our family, for ourselves, for entertainment,
08:59for content consumption purpose, we're usually looking at the latest design, latest form factor,
09:04etc. And probably the life cycle ranges anywhere between one, two to maximum five years. But when
09:11you're buying for business, you know, it's an investment into your business, then you're ideally
09:14looking to have the maximum TCO or total cost of ownership end-to-end. Includes the initial cost of
09:20acquisition of the device, plus the servicing of the device, plus if something goes wrong, then what kind
09:26of spare part extra charges are going to be there, etc. So what ASUS does when it comes to military
09:32standard testing, which is the MIL-STD-810G, this is a very broad set of tests, which are standardized
09:39across, you know, like military grade equipment. But some of those tests or processes are pulled down
09:46to make it, you know, to set a benchmark for business use devices. Of course, we don't need military
09:52grade devices on our office desk, right? So according to those processes and the tests that are followed,
09:58like for example, this goes through vibration test, it goes through temperature tests, it can even operate
10:03in 55 degrees Celsius temperature, up to 60 degrees in some instances as well, down to super negative
10:09temperatures as well. It goes through dust testing. So you throw dust away, it is still supposed to work.
10:14So these are some of the tests, industry-wide, which are, which signal the robustness of the device.
10:20And ASUS is the only vendor out there, where we do 26 different kind of tests on our entire expert
10:27series. You might, military standard has become almost like a marketing term now. So others might be
10:33doing 13 tests or 18 tests as an example. But for us, every single device that has expert series written
10:39on it goes through 26 processes, which really is the golden standard when it comes to, you know,
10:44robustness or durability benchmark. You spoke about battery as well. So battery is an important thing,
10:49right? We're using laptop, not a desktop, which means we want to be mobile. Sometimes we need to connect
10:54from airports or cafes or home. So battery life is also something that we put a lot of emphasis on.
11:00Okay.
11:01We are putting some of the massive capacity batteries into our devices without, through sheer engineering,
11:08without increasing the weight. For example, we're also doing something which is inside the device,
11:14inside the software piece of the device. We have something called my ASUS app on our business
11:19devices, which has something called a battery save option. If you just click it, because what happens
11:25is when we're using at home or in office, usually we have it plugged into a charger. Yeah. And the
11:29recommendation as per the research is, is that you should not charge your battery more than 80 to 100%.
11:35So you should, you should, you should keep it to 78 and then stop charging.
11:39Yeah. I heard that before. Yeah.
11:40It increases the longevity, the life of your battery. Otherwise, probably after three years,
11:44four years, you will see that your battery capacity has gone down by about 10, 15, 20%.
11:48It's true, basically.
11:50It is. It is true. So what this my ASUS app does is that you can keep it plugged in all day,
11:56but as soon as it hits 80%, it cuts off. And then it brings back to 80% and stops there. So these kind
12:03of smart, simple, but smart and relevant innovations inside the device, as well as on the software side
12:09and application side is something that increases the overall life of ASUS devices. And that's why it is a
12:14good decision for any IT decision maker when they look at the TCO of the device. Cybersecurity is a top
12:21priority for companies today. What role does ASUS Expert Guardian and your multi-layered security
12:27approach play in protecting enterprise users? When we talk about cyber security, cyber resilience
12:32on the client device side, we can put it into three different layers. One is on the hardware side,
12:37the actual chips and the motherboard that is inside here. The second layer is BIOS, which is the first
12:42thing that starts up when we switch on the power button. And the third thing is on the operating system,
12:47which is what we interact with. So when we're using Windows or any other operating system out there,
12:52we're interacting with the operating system. But there is another layer below it called BIOS,
12:55and there is hardware piece below it. So in our suite of Expert Guardian solutions with regards to
13:01security on the device, we take care of all these three layers. Okay, so we've got a TPM module,
13:06discrete TPM module, which is a small piece of hardware on the motherboard, where all your passwords,
13:12all your encryption keys, every single thing sits there. So it's not something that is easily
13:16hackable, you know, if you put it like that. BIOS is the first layer, like I said, of software,
13:21or first layer of instructions that startup. There also we have a solution called, you know,
13:27secure BIOS, something like a secure BIOS, where if in case BIOS is corrupted, the system will
13:32automatically detect and will not let it switch on. In fact, it will retrieve back to the golden copy of
13:38the BIOS. So to make sure, because everything from BIOS, if it is corrupted, everything above that,
13:43whatever we are typing, whatever we are talking, everything can be traced back to the hackers.
13:48And when we talk about the operating system layer, which is the third layer, which is what we interact
13:52with, we have a lot of multi-factor authentication methods. We have Windows Hello or facial recognition,
13:58we've got fingerprint sensor. So not just relying on the password side. So a lot of these things are
14:04inbuilt into the device and also enhanced by our Expert Guardian solution. Another simple thing that we
14:10put across our Expert series is something called a privacy shutter here on the camera. So whenever
14:16the camera is not in use, just in case to be sure, you can just keep it always locked. Only when you're
14:21going to use it for any Teams chat or Zoom chat or video conferencing, then only you can switch it on.
14:26So these kinds of device features or security features are very important when we are working
14:31in business environment. And when we're working, you know, throughout the day, for example, with sensitive data.
14:37Many companies now operate in hybrid or mobile environments. How does the Expert books,
14:42performance and thermal design support heavy multitasking and demanding enterprise applications?
14:48We have been living in a hybrid or a semi hybrid world ever since the pandemic. So we all know that
14:53we've all experienced that. And it's not so we spoke earlier about the battery life and the battery
14:57quality, right, in terms of the watt hours and the capacity of the battery. But thermal cooling is also
15:02something very, very important. And ASUS, again, we have our legacy in the gaming systems as well.
15:06When you talk about ROG, Republic of Gamers, etc. Even on some of our pro-watt solutions or high-end
15:11workstations, we know how CPUs can, because it's silicon at the end, right, it can heat up. If, for example,
15:20we are, we push ourselves also, we also feel, you know, a little bit warm because our core temperature goes up.
15:24So similarly in the CPU side, if you're not cooling it efficiently and effectively, the CPU beyond a point
15:31will throttle. So it will not go beyond a point and your performance will suffer. It will stop there
15:36or it will skip two levels below just to maintain temperature. Otherwise it can burn up. So our heat
15:42sinks, our thermal solutions, we don't have liquid cooling on our devices, but we have it on the gaming,
15:47for example, or on the high-end devices, workstations and servers. So we really know how to engineer that
15:52from the, from inside the device, from under the hood. So I can't show you here, but if you,
15:57if you were to look at it, we've got a huge heat sink over here. So where the CPU is, we've got a
16:03we've got a long pipe, long little metal pipe that is going and taking the warm air to the heat sink
16:11and it is also being dissipated across all of these little gaps that you see here. So this is all to
16:16release heat in real time. So your CPU can keep on performing without damaging the device.
16:21Now, we also get this question from some of our customers that, okay, if you, you are the ones
16:26that have maximum number of these kind of, you know, holes or openings on the back cover,
16:31is that not harmful for your motherboard, etc. So on all of our devices, wherever you see a heat sink,
16:39like where the hot heat is supposed to dissipate from, we've got dust filters inside. So that none of
16:43the dust particles or anything, because that's also another thing that can affect performance. If the dust
16:48particle goes and sticks to the fan or some of these heat sink vents, that's also an issue.
16:53So we take care of it from both sides in that regard to make sure the performance is optimal.
16:58ACES expert books have strong traction with both educational institutions and enterprise customers.
17:04What is ACES strategy for the upcoming year in terms of vertical approach?
17:08Yeah, absolutely. So like I said before, when we started about six years back, our focus, our niche
17:15go-to-market strategy was build a solution ground up for education, because we understood that
17:19our technology adoption and education is growing massively. The second thing that came along with
17:25our, you know, as our regional and branch offices kept on expanding was the public sector focus,
17:29because our devices were really suited for public sector use, because what does the public sector or
17:34government demands? They demand the best value for the public's money, right? So in terms of having
17:40the best performance, best durability at the right price point without the frills is something that
17:45ASUS was able to provide consistently to them as well. And as a result of this, in some of the regions,
17:51I'm talking about EMEA right now, I'm not even talking about Asia, we have got double-digit market share
17:56in some of these segments. So it further solidifies that ASUS had a clear vision, clear strategy,
18:02not to broad base, not to go after everything. Now, after five years of success and seeing
18:07consistent market growth over double-digit in some of the regions, I'm not talking about countries,
18:12some of the regions we've grown more than 50% year on year this year. So after seeing the success,
18:18we are very clear that we want to go into further more verticals with vertical focus solutions. So you
18:24will see us coming up with the new lineup, as I said, and focus is going to be around healthcare,
18:29for example, hospitality, which is a big thing here, as well as BFSI, a banking and financial
18:36services sector. So you'll see us not only coming or being more present in some of these events,
18:41etc., but also at the same time having the right solution that fits their needs.
18:45Without revealing too much, can you give us a hint of what businesses can expect from the upcoming
18:50expert book, Ultra, launching in 2026?
18:53Well, it is one of the devices that I saw internally, and I really got excited about,
18:59because this is something that is pushing beyond boundaries on all fronts. I strongly believe
19:05this is one of the devices in our lineup that is going to have almost like an emotional appeal for
19:10the users. For now, you think, or we like to think that business devices should be as invisible tools,
19:19you know, because sometimes you realize that, okay, something is, I'm using a laptop of Asus,
19:24or any other brand for that matter, or I'm using a laptop, when something goes wrong. Till then,
19:28we don't want you to even think about a laptop or a device, client device. But this is a device in
19:33terms of its form factor. So in terms of its thinness, in terms of its weight, in terms of the
19:39touchscreen and the quality of the touchscreen, in terms of the performance, the highest highest end CPU
19:46possible in a laptop form factor, every single thing is coming all together. And it's coming in
19:51color options as well. So it's really something that almost gets me excited. And I'm pretty sure
19:55the reaction is going to be very similar from our users as well. We should be able to bring some
20:00test devices to the market in the middle of Q1 next year. And can you explain a bit more how it's
20:05going to look like? If you can think of this as, you know, the thickness, it's going to be
20:11approximately 60% of this. Oh, wow. Okay. That's going to be very thin. This device is
20:15around 1.2 kilogram, which is already very thin and light because you have to be military standard
20:20tested and robust as well. That device is going to be under one kilo. Still military standard. I
20:25would really make sure that this is something that are, that is covered very well and reaches our
20:30strategic customers, clients to share so they can share their feedback as well. Right. So that in the
20:35next generation, what can we do to make it better? But for now, this is something that my entire team
20:40and our entire team and the region is quite excited about. And finally, in your time in the Middle East,
20:45you've worked with major enterprise and public sector customers for their IT needs. What have
20:50these partnerships taught you about what decision makers in the region truly value when selecting
20:56business hardware? So, like I said before, when it comes to business decisions, like for a CIO
21:01or a CTO or IT director, it is very important to look at not just the device aesthetics, but also the
21:08overall TCO or the other words, you can put it ROI of the device. You want to make sure that you're
21:14buying something that is going to last from a hardware standpoint between three to six, seven
21:19years. This is what I've seen in this region, a maximum lifespan. Actually, laptops are more around
21:25three to four years, a maximum five years. Desktops can sometimes go up to even seven, eight years in
21:30some of the regions, but it's the overall TCO. So, the TCO comes from the device quality
21:35to start with. It comes from the technology choice. So, if today we are running a certain
21:41generation of CPUs from either AMD or Intel or anybody else, are you buying that generation or
21:49are you buying the latest generation or are you buying n-1 or n-2 generation? That is also something
21:54that allows you to be more future-proof when it comes to technology, because your applications,
22:00your workflows are going to get more intense, especially with AI right now. You want to invest
22:06in something which after one or two years is not going to be obsolete. So, that is from technology
22:11standpoint and durability. Third thing very important is also the services infrastructure,
22:16because in businesses, there are some business critical use cases where a laptop cannot even be
22:20down for two, three, four hours. Of course, as OEM, we cannot be every single area next to every
22:29single organization, unfortunately. That's why we have a landscape of partners, system integrators
22:34and value-added resellers who give some of the value-adds to the customer in terms of hot-swappable
22:40units. So, we integrate all of that in our service packages. We spoke about battery. I believe we are
22:47one of the only vendors that covers battery and their warranty as well. So, we have battery warranty packs
22:52also. So, what happens is that then IT or the CEO of the organization can have a predictable expense
23:01or investment when it comes to, you know, if they have a fleet of hundred laptops or a thousand or
23:06ten thousand laptops, they can be predictable. They can predict how much they will invest. They will not
23:10have any last-minute surprises. So, I think if you are clear when you're talking about talking to these CIOs
23:15and CTOs that, okay, this is what you have end-to-end and not to mention now sustainability has also become
23:23since last four or five years. I mean, you have to come in this country and the leadership, right?
23:26It has been an important topic when it comes to IT hardware for many years, but now it has become
23:32even more stringent and there is emphasis that is put on what kind of devices they're going to be using.
23:38After the life cycle of the device, after five, six years, what happens to the device?
23:42Is it going to some landfills? Is it polluting some oceans? So, we make sure of that entire circular economy
23:48as well. So, I think these in terms of technology, in terms of cost and in terms of sustainability,
23:53I think these are some of the most important criteria that these decision makers look for.
23:57It was great speaking with you today. Thank you so much for being here.
24:01My pleasure. Thank you. Have a good day.
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