As brands across the MENA region accelerate their adoption of generative AI, the challenge is shifting from simply producing content faster to using AI without losing cultural relevance, strategic judgement and brand quality. Tharaa Labs, the AI-focused sister entity of Pepper Communications Group, is positioning itself at this intersection, combining PCG’s regional communications experience with generative AI, digital strategy, visual communication and data intelligence.In this conversation with PR Post, Mohammed Shahid, Business Director, Tharaa Labs, discusses the company’s expansion plans across Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the evolving role of AI in MENA marketing, the need for cultural intelligence beyond localisation, and why human judgement will remain critical as AI-generated content scales.How does Tharaa Labs leverage its position as a sister entity of Pepper Communications Group (PCG) to support the visual communications and digital intelligence needs of brands across the MENA region, particularly within the UAE’s rapidly evolving media and marketing ecosystem?Tharaa Labs was set up to combine PCG's strategic communications experience with the capabilities of generative AI. That pairing is the advantage — PCG brings two decades of understanding how brands in this region build reputation, and we bring the tooling to execute at a speed and scale the market hasn't seen before.Practically, that means we work across the full stack: digital strategy, content production, visual communication, and the data layer that tells brands what's working. Our clients get agency judgement and AI leverage in one place, rather than having to stitch the two together.Very few agencies in the UAE are operating with that depth today, and it's a lead we intend to hold.Please talk about your plans to expand into Saudi Arabia and Qatar with offices slated for 2027. And what is your strategic roadmap for scaling Tharaa Labs’ operations and adapting to the unique demands of these new markets?Saudi Arabia and Qatar are both on the roadmap for 2027, and we're working through the groundwork now.The mistake we want to avoid is one we've watched plenty of international agencies make, which is treating the GCC as a single market. It isn't. Saudi's media landscape, its regulatory environment, and what audiences there respond to are all quite different from Qatar's, and both are different from the UAE. Content that performs in Dubai doesn't automatically travel.Tharaa Labs is taking the sequence seriously: we will build genuine local understanding first, hire from within each market, get the cultural and language nuance right, and then scale quickly once that foundation is in place. We'd rather move deliberately at the start and move fast later than the other way around.Why do you believe that successful artificial intelligence integration requires a comprehensive business strategy rather than just implementing new technology?Because buying a tool isn't a strategy. We see a lot of brands sign up for AI platforms, run them for a quarter, and end up with faster versions of work that wasn't delivering results in the first place.The harder questions come before the technology. What is the business actually trying to move - leads, brand recall, quality of content, cost per acquisition? Which parts of the current process are genuinely broken? Who owns the output once AI is producing it, and who signs off on quality? Most organisations haven't answered those, and no tool answers them for you.AI compresses the cost of execution dramatically. That's a real advantage, but only if the direction is right. If it isn't, you've just built a faster route to the wrong place.How is artificial intelligence fundamentally altering speed, scale, and quality for brands in the MENA region, and what constitutes this "new content advantage"?The obvious change is speed. Campaign assets that took three weeks now take three days, and that's real. But speed alone is the least interesting part of it.Scale is where MENA gets specific. Brands here are working across Arabic and English at minimum, often Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog and more, and across markets with different sensibilities. Producing genuinely localised work for each of those used to mean either a large budget or a compromise. That constraint is largely gone.Quality is the part people get wrong. AI doesn't raise your ceiling. It raises your floor, and it buys back the hours your team was spending on production so they can spend them on thinking.In what ways must organizations transition from basic localisation to true cultural intelligence when rethinking AI-generated content for diverse MENA audiences?Localisation asks whether the words are correct. Cultural intelligence asks whether the message belongs.Most AI output in Arabic is grammatically fine and tonally wrong. It defaults to Modern Standard Arabic when the conversation on the ground is Khaleeji, or Egyptian, or Levantine. It misses that a Ramadan campaign in the UAE and one in Saudi are not the same brief. It doesn't know that a large share of your audience in Dubai is South Asian and reading in English anyway.Those aren't translation problems. They're judgement problems, and they sit with people who live in these markets.Looking ahead to the next few years, what major shifts do you anticipate in how regional businesses balance automated digital intelligence with human-led visual and brand communications? The next two years will bring a flood of AI content, and most of it will be slop. Brands are already falling into that trap - producing volume because they can, without asking whether any of it deserves to exist.We're anti slop at Tharaa Labs, and that's not a slogan. Nothing leaves this agency without a human deciding it's good enough to carry a client's name on it.What I expect is a correction. Audiences are getting faster at spotting generated work, and the brands that flooded feeds with it will find it has cost them something they can't buy back quickly. The ones that held the line on craft will look conservative for a while and then look correct.The balance settles where it usually does automate the production, never the judgement. The machine makes it fast. Tharaa Labs team makes it worth watching.

In an era where reputation can shape business outcomes as much as financial performance, strategic communications is emerging as a vital pillar of corporate leadership. As organisations grapple with AI-driven disruption, misinformation and increasingly complex stakeholder expectations, public relations is being called upon to provide not just visibility, but strategic counsel. Reflecting on this year's World PR Day theme, "The Golden Age of Strategic PR", Roshan Mohan, Founder of Tharaa Labs and Group Managing Director of Pepper Communications Group, discusses the growing influence of communications in executive decision-making, the need to measure reputation capital, and why human judgement will remain indispensable in an AI-powered future.This year's World PR Day theme is "The Golden Age of Strategic PR". Do you believe public relations has finally earned a seat at the executive decision-making table, or do communications leaders still have to prove their strategic value?I believe PR has undoubtedly moved closer to the executive decision-making table. However, it is only a matter of time when more and more business decisions will be driven by PR advisory. The organisations that see communications as a business function, that understand the importance and value of building trust are involving communications leaders much earlier in decision-making, whether it's navigating reputation risks, managing stakeholder trust, driving transformation, or supporting business growth. In those environments, PR is no longer reacting to decisions; it is helping shape them.That said, the industry as a whole still has work to do. Communications professionals need to move beyond reporting media coverage and start demonstrating how their work influences business outcomes. Today's communications landscape is driven by data, technology, audience intelligence, and integrated storytelling. The value we bring lies in connecting these disciplines to business strategy.The theme of this year's World PR Day, 'The Golden Age of Strategic PR', is particularly relevant because the role of PR has expanded far beyond earned media. We are increasingly expected to advise leadership on reputation, stakeholder sentiment, crisis preparedness, policy shifts, and the broader narrative surrounding an organisation.Strategic PR is no longer about being the loudest voice in the room. It is about ensuring the organisation is communicating the right story, to the right stakeholders, at the right time, with measurable business impact. Those who consistently deliver that value have already earned their place in the boardroom. The rest of the industry is steadily moving in that direction.In an era marked by AI, misinformation, geopolitical uncertainty and heightened stakeholder expectations, how should PR professionals balance speed with accuracy while maintaining public trust?In today's communications environment, the challenge isn't just responding quickly; it's responding responsibly. AI, misinformation, and an increasingly complex stakeholder landscape have made trust more valuable than ever.While speed is important, accuracy and credibility cannot be compromised. A delayed response can be explained; an inaccurate one can damage reputation and erode stakeholder confidence. AI can certainly enhance efficiency, but all AI platforms say “AI can make mistakes.” Human judgement, context, and ethical decision-making remain indispensable.The role of strategic PR is to help organisations communicate with clarity, consistency, and credibility. In an era of constant information flow, trust will continue to be the defining measure of effective communication.Trust has become one of the most valuable assets for organisations. What role do you see strategic PR playing in helping businesses navigate crises, regulatory changes and increasingly complex stakeholder relationships?Trust is built over time but could be eroded in an instant, which is why strategic PR has become a critical business function rather than just a communications function. We at PCG have worked out a particular formula to calculate Reputation Capital and Reputation Efficiency. It allows us to assess how communication contributes to stakeholder trust, reputation and business performance, demonstrating that while reputation is an intangible asset, it can be measured, managed and strengthened through a strategic communications approach. PR earns trust. PR helps navigate the landscape of communicating with various stakeholders, providing leadership with clear, timely, and credible counsel. PR helps anticipate risks, aligning communication with business strategy, and ensuring transparency across every stakeholder touchpoint.However, we also need a way to measure this beyond just human instinct. Despite all the PR done over decades, for instance, how long can a brand withstand a crisis? At what point does the trust start to erode? As gatekeepers, we also need to have a measure of these, hence the RC and RE scores. Having a tangible score helps us understand what’s the distance to be covered and the most effective way of doing it.As the communications industry enters what World PR Day describes as the "Golden Age of Strategic PR", what skills and mindset do you believe the next generation of PR professionals must develop to remain relevant and influential over the next decade?The professionals who'll matter most in the next decade are the ones who can combine the power of AI with sound judgment. AI is a powerful tool, but it doesn't alter the fundamentals of public relations. The communications professionals who will create the greatest impact in the next decade are those who can combine the power of AI with sound judgment. Familiarity with AI tools is becoming a baseline capability, but what will truly differentiate professionals is their ability to think critically by understanding the business context, evaluating stakeholder perspectives, anticipating reputational impact and knowing which stories deserve attention, which conversations matter most for a client, and when human insight should take precedence over automation.I'd also encourage young professionals to develop a deeper understanding of business, not just communications. The best communication strategies are rooted in an understanding of industry dynamics, competitive challenges, and business objectives. Creativity is important, but it delivers far greater value when it's backed by commercial context. Technologies will continue to evolve, and audiences will change, but authenticity, strategic thinking, and credibility will always remain the foundations of meaningful communication.