AI-Driven Variation Governance in Mega-Projects: Lessons From the UAE & Global Markets

Overview

Mega-projects in the UAE and wider GCC; airports, giga-towers, stadiums, data centres, and master plans, are facing unprecedented scale, pace, and complexity. Variation claims and scope growth are now one of the biggest drivers of commercial risk. At the same time, AI is reshaping the way project information is captured, structured, interpreted, and used in dispute scenarios.

This panel will explore how AI technologies are transforming change management, variation valuation, and dispute resolution and what the construction, QS, and arbitration communities can learn from both the Middle East and global practice.

Moderator

• Dr John Fletcher, Executive Director, RICS Dispute Resolution Service
   

Panel

• Kasia Halliday, Director, Disputes & Investigation, Construction, Alvarez & Marsal Middle East
• Ozan Altun, Senior Manager (Delay), Alvarez & Marsal Middle East
• Paul Thornton, Senior Director & Delay Expert, Alvarez & Marsal Middle East
• Cheryl Cairns, Partner, Trowers & Hamlins LLP
• Maria Scanlan, Legal Director, Crescent Petroleum