Manama: Former Chief Business Officer of Google X, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and internationally recognised AI expert Mo Gawdat has joined Fintech Forward 2026’s speaker lineup to share his perspective on the future of artificial intelligence, human judgment, and responsible decision-making. Gawdat’s participation comes at a time when AI is commanding global attention as businesses, regulators, and the public navigate questions around trust, accountability, and the role of human oversight in increasingly intelligent systems. The region’s flagship financial services forum will take place on 7-8 October 2026 at Exhibition World Bahrain, under the theme “Finance in the Age of Intelligent Infrastructure.”
Gawdat’s 27-year career spans IBM, NCR, Microsoft, and Google, where he helped launch nearly half of Google’s global operations before becoming Chief Business Officer at Google X, the innovation lab behind moonshot projects including self-driving cars, Project Loon, and Makani. He is also the founder of the One Billion Happy movement, host of Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat, and author of international bestsellers including Solve for Happy, Scary Smart, That Little Voice in Your Head, Unstressable, and Alive. His work on AI, happiness, and human potential has made him one of the world’s most distinctive voices on how advanced technologies can be shaped by human values.
At FF26, Gawdat will take part in a fireside chat titled “When Intelligence Is Everywhere: What Should Humans Still Decide?” The session will explore how AI is being embedded across industries, including financial services, where intelligent systems are increasingly shaping decisions around money, investing, risk, and customer interaction. The discussion will examine what this shift means for judgment, ethics, and accountability, and where human decision-making remains essential as machines become more capable of prediction and action.
“AI is no longer a distant technology; it is becoming part of the infrastructure behind our choices, our institutions, and our financial systems. The real test is not simply how powerful these systems become, but whether we remain clear about the decisions that require human judgment and values. I look forward to joining Fintech Forward 2026 in Bahrain to explore these topics with some of the key players shaping the financial services industry in the region,” Mo Gawdat said.
Financial services remains Bahrain’s largest economic sector, contributing 17.6% to GDP in 2025, underlining the Kingdom’s role as one of the region’s most established financial centres. Building on more than a century of sector expertise, Bahrain continues to strengthen its fintech ecosystem through innovative financial institutions and a future-proofed talent pool. The Kingdom has also introduced a series of pioneering policies, becoming the first in the region to offer open banking, crypto-asset, and stablecoin regulations, reinforcing its position as a testbed for responsible financial innovation.
Hosted by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (Bahrain EDB) and supported by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), the Labour Fund (Tamkeen), Bahrain Tourism & Exhibition Authority (BTEA), and Bahrain Fintech Bay, Fintech Forward 2026 is programmed by Forbes Middle East. The forum will convene global thought leaders, innovators, investors, policymakers, and industry executives to examine the forces shaping the future of the industry and the opportunities emerging from intelligent infrastructure.
