Approximately 200,000 specialists are currently working in exporting digital services from Egypt to global markets, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Raafat Hindi said during the opening of the ninth DevOpsDays Cairo 2026 conference.
Addressing the event’s theme, “Sustainable DevOps Methodologies in the Era of Agentic AI,” Hindi stated that the competence of Egyptian developers remains a major sector strength and a catalyst for multinational companies expanding their local operations.
Hindi noted that global software development is experiencing a deep transition toward autonomous artificial intelligence systems. As AI increasingly participates in writing code, testing, and autonomous decision-making, the minister raised questions regarding the maintenance of human oversight, accountability, energy and computing resource consumption, and cybersecurity compliance.
To demonstrate local technological advancement, Hindi highlighted the recent launch of “Karnak,” the first Egyptian large language model (LLM) developed by local engineers, which is capable of understanding classical and colloquial Egyptian Arabic. He emphasised the role of DevOps engineers in transitioning such digital models from technical achievements into sustainable, reliable services.
Ahmed El-Zaher, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), said the rapid evolution of Agentic AI is transforming software systems from assistive tools into entities capable of autonomous task execution and planning. This shift requires updated work methodologies, governance frameworks, and continuous investment in specialised skills, he said.
El-Zaher added that the ninth edition of the conference features 66 speakers, including 13 international experts from nine countries.
The event is organised by ITIDA’s Software Engineering Competence Center (SECC) at the Creativa Innovation Hub in Giza. Cairo hosted the first regional edition in 2018 and remains the only Arab city to host the DevOpsDays series, which operates in over 60 cities worldwide.
The conference agenda comprises four main tracks addressing DevOps in the Agentic AI era: cost and environmental sustainability, human sustainability and governance, security and reliability, and tools and infrastructure. The programme also includes three panel discussions on governance, corporate culture, and organisational aspects, alongside three specialised workshops.
The event will conclude with the announcement of the winning teams in a competition focused on employing DevOps and AI to accelerate automation and innovation. Out of 142 applicant teams, 20 reached the final stage, split equally between 10 student teams and 10 professional graduate teams. The finalists were evaluated by a 12-member panel comprising six Egyptian and six international judges.
The conference was attended by SECC Head Haitham Hamza, ITIDA officials, and IT and software development managers from local and global companies.
