Global Business Leaders Conference Week 2025

Overview
The world is entering a new era - marked by economic realignment and the transformative power of artificial intelligence. This event explores what these shifts mean for leaders and organizations.
Highlights include:

• A deep dive into the GCC and UAE economic outlook with the IMF, uncovering opportunities and challenges in a multipolar world.
• A visionary perspective on management education from the Dean of INSEAD, redefining how leaders are prepared for tomorrow.
• A forward-looking session on shaping leaders for an AI-driven economy, offering practical insights for thriving in a technology-led future.

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Overview
Over the past year, we’ve been building the AI Venture Lab, an 8-week Sprint that helps early-stage founders build faster and leaner with AI, while generating real-time evidence on what actually works. This private, invite-only Showcase will share new insights on AI-native venture building and highlight how founders are achieving meaningful results with AI today.

We will also feature a select group of the most promising startups from our inaugural AI Founder Sprint. Their early impact has been remarkable: across the Sprint, founders have already generated $40M+ in revenue and raised $91M+ in investment.

We’re bringing together a curated group of top investors, operators, builders, and AI experts from across the SEA ecosystem for an afternoon of insights, discussion, and founder presentations.

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Overview
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping how entrepreneurs build companies and how investors discover, evaluate, and support them. Rather than speeding up old processes, AI is redefining how opportunities are identified, how value is created, and how capital is deployed across the startup and scale-up landscape.

Day 2 of the INSEAD Global Business Leader Conference Week brings together leading thinkers and practitioners to explore the next era of AI-enabled investing and venture creation. This high-impact session examines how founders are using AI to expand their strategic capacity, how investors leverage new data and analytical tools to gain an edge, and how these shifts are transforming the relationship between innovation and capital.
Expect a program featuring a keynote, an interactive fireside conversation, and a dynamic panel discussion focused on:

• How AI is reshaping sourcing, screening, and strategic evaluation of new ventures
• How founders are using AI as a multiplier to accelerate experimentation, scaling, and decision-making
• How new models of investor–founder collaboration are emerging in an AI-native economy
• What these shifts mean for future investment strategies, portfolio design, and global competitiveness

Discover how AI is not just improving financial processes, but fundamentally transforming how ventures are imagined, built, and backed.
Join us for an evening of insight and connection with leaders at the intersection of technology, strategy, finance, and entrepreneurship.

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INSEAD and Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF) invite you to an exclusive roundtable marking the launch of the UAE Innovation Economy Exits Report. This high-level session will convene influential stakeholders including founders, GPs, LPs, corporate VCs, IPO funds, regulators, and ecosystem enablers, to explore key findings, share perspectives, and shape strategies for driving innovation and successful exits in the UAE.

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Overview
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly no longer viewed as just a passive tool in geopolitical analysis, but a precursor to possible paradigm shifts in how we conceptualise the competition and cooperation of global powers – large and small. In this talk, we focus on two core issues that have received insubstantial attention: (1) the ethics of the increasing inequality in the access to leading AI resources between the world's leading economies and the rest of the world, focusing in particular on the role of middle-to-high income powers, and (2) the strategic/rational choices considerations of geopolitical AI dynamics from a game theoretic perspective, arguing in particular that AI competition is very different from its historical analogs like the space race between the United States and the USSR. The talk is intended for anyone interested in the relationship between the tech industry and the defense and security communities.

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Overview
Join the INSEAD NextGen Youth Bootcamp, an intensive two-day programme where high school students (ages 15-17) transform ideas into viable sustainable ventures. Over an immersive weekend, participants will engage in MBA-type exercises, expert-led workshops, and collaborative venture-building sessions designed to accelerate their entrepreneurial thinking.
The programme culminates in a high-stakes pitch competition where finalists present their innovative business concepts to a distinguished panel of executives at the INSEAD NextGen Conference in Abu Dhabi on 16 December 2025.

Who Should Apply
High school students aged 15-17 with a keen interest in startups, business, and sustainability
English language proficiency and curiosity about innovation and entrepreneurship are required.

Application Process
To apply, submit a short bio and a brief statement explaining your motivation for joining the INSEAD NextGen Bootcamp (via the above Register button). The application deadline is 7 December 2025. 
This bootcamp offers a unique opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills, build connections, and take part in real-world startup challenges as part of the NextGen business community. 
For any questions, please contact Katia Kachan. 

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Overview
Family-owned businesses in the Middle East are undergoing a rapid generational transition amid highly dynamic global context. Empowering next-generation leaders to build resilience and drive innovation has become an imperative, supported by governance frameworks that meet rising stakeholder expectations while balancing long-term family control with entrepreneurial agility. In parallel, strategic partnerships with private equity are emerging as a key growth-capital avenue for families seeking to professionalise, diversify, and scale their enterprises.
On Tuesday 16 December 2025, the INSEAD Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise will convene members in family enterprises and family offices from the UAE and across the region for a focused half-day conference to explore strategies for growth and innovation, examine private equity collaborations, and address succession planning for next generation leaders. 
Join us on INSEAD Abu Dhabi campus for an insightful and engaging session where academic faculty and family enterprise leaders will share perspectives on what sets UAE-based and Middle Eastern family enterprises apart in their approach to innovation, private equity partnership and succession planning.
Save the date and join us for a stimulating experience of learning, exchange, and networking with peers from the family business and family office community.

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An exclusive session from Professor Phanish Puranam - exploring how AI is reshaping the way we lead organisations. Designed for corporate leaders who value academic expertise to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape. 

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