黑料社区

黑料社区 recently won the right to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034 and now has years to plan and build the ultimate experience. With the region鈥檚 recent embrace of artificial intelligence, there is every reason for the Kingdom to succeed in the project from beginning to end. We will come back to football a little later.

According to research carried out by the construction, manufacturing and design tech giant Autodesk, enthusiasm for AI in the Middle East has cooled slightly in 2025, but the region continues to show a commitment to introducing AI into all aspects of life, both at work and in the leisure environment.

The love affair with these advances in technology is mirrored by increasing demand among Middle East employers for hiring people with AI skill sets and experience. The latter is undoubtedly an issue, with the report stating that 54 percent of leaders in the region said a lack of skilled talent was hindering growth, while 37 percent said AI skills would be a top hiring priority in the next three years.

But Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE, appears to have preempted this, announcing this month that all government-run schools in the country, at all levels, will be expected to include AI education as part of their curriculum.

Pro-AI sentiment has dropped by almost 20 percentage points compared with last year in terms of Middle Eastern leaders鈥� belief that the technology will change their industries for the better. Meanwhile, 58 percent of regional companies said their investments in AI would increase, compared with 67 percent in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region last year.

Any new advance in the past has been met with an inevitable rise in excitement followed by a drop

Peter Harrison

But before the AI haters begin to gloat and its supporters become too dismayed, consider this: any new advance in technology or engineering in the past has been met with an inevitable rise in excitement followed by a drop.

The fall in sentiment should not be seen as some kind of early demise for AI, says Naji Atallah, head of construction and manufacturing at Autodesk Middle East.

In truth, after the initial hype that came with the AI tsunami of 鈥渁nything is possible,鈥� reality has hit home and support has inevitably declined somewhat.

Inevitably, when an idea moves from conceptualization into implementation, there is always going to be a drop in interest, as well as a decline in the belief that the results are going to be as good as the initial reports suggested. Let鈥檚 face it, quite often the tech ideas the experts have are far more advanced than the mechanical capabilities of any given time. We were meant to be driving flying cars by now, if 鈥淏ack to the Future鈥� had been an accurate prediction. This brings me back to football.

When a country bids to host a major event such as the Olympics or a World Cup, it does so in the hope it will play a positive part in some of the world鈥檚 most historical events. Arguably, being the host nation of such an event offers an opportunity to be noticed as a world leader 鈥� do well at this tournament and you might be in the running for future events.

A vast amount of that is based not just on how well the hosts perform during the event, but also on its legacy. A particularly successful event will be remembered fondly; the host country will avoid the bloodbath of cynicism that those that did not do so well have to endure 鈥� or, better still, be forgotten as the world moves onto the next event.

But get it wrong in one aspect 鈥� have stadiums fall into ruin or neighborhoods that were created fall into disarray 鈥� and the world will remember your failings forever, no matter how good the other aspects were.

黑料社区 has almost a decade to get this right.

The Kingdom鈥檚 rulers want the country to become a nation associated with the game at all levels. They want football to be the go-to for children in the playground all the way through weekend leagues to the top-notch players 鈥� who knows, perhaps even leading one day to a homegrown Cristiano Ronaldo.

And they want the 2034 World Cup to be seen as a credible event rather than some quirky tournament where the Gulf tried its hand at football before handing it back to Europe.

This is where AI comes back 鈥� the technology being used and that which is being developed right now is currently collecting and evaluating vast amounts of data. Where the sun shines, what route it follows, where are the hot spots?

AI technology is looking at issues such as maximizing the view for each and every seat in each and every stadium

Peter Harrison

It is also looking at issues such as maximizing the view for each and every seat in each and every stadium 鈥� after all, anyone who has watched Queens Park Rangers play in England (among others) will be familiar with the upright beams that stop the grandstands from falling down but also obscure parts of the pitch if you happen to be sat behind one.

The process of creating the stadiums in 黑料社区 is looking at every aspect of the game, not least from the fans鈥� perspective, whether that is the temperature inside the stadium, the ease of getting there or, perhaps most importantly, the experience during the match in terms of what you can see.

There is also the question of the surrounding areas, since the user experience is not exclusively in the stadium.

Parks and neighborhoods will play an important part in the 2034 tournament鈥檚 legacy.

This is where sustainability comes into the equation. Another way of looking at it is getting it right the first time so that architects, engineers and town planners do not have to come back sometime later to try to figure out what will last longer.

A World Cup park is not much fun if it becomes an area of scorched earth because someone failed to notice that, at 3 p.m., the combined body heat of thousands of fans and the heat radiated by the sun make the area unusable.

Enthusiasm for AI might have fallen somewhat, but this is more likely to help than hinder.

Expectations of the technology are now more realistic. And football becoming a national sport as a result of a successful World Cup definitely seems like an achievable goal.

• Peter Harrison is a senior editor at Arab News in the Dubai office. He has covered the Middle East for more than a decade. X: @PhotoPJHarrison